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COLUMBUS 

{After  jxiintin'i  hi  Royttl  Arsenal,  Madrid) 

"  Sail  on,  sail  on,  sail  on,  and  on." 


ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE 


OR,  STEPS  TO  SUCCESS  AND  POWER 


A  BOOK   DESIGNED   TO   INSPIRE   YOUTH   TO 

CHARACTER  BUILDING,  SELF-CULTURE 

AND   NOBLE  ACHIEVEMENT 


ORISON    SWETT    MARDEN 

AUTHOR    OF    " PUSHING    TO    THE     FRONT 
OR,  SUCCESS  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES  " 


ILLUSTRATED    WITH  THIRTY-TWO   FINE 
PORTRAITS  OF  EMINENT  PERSONS 


"All  are  architects  of  fate 
Working  in  these  walls  of  time." 

"  Our  to-days  and  yesterdays 
Are  the  blocks  with  which  we  build." 

''  Let  thy  great  deed  be  thy  prayer  to  thy  God.' 


BOSTON    AND    NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

<^z  JSilier?ibe  j^res?,  Camliriti0C 

1895 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  orison  SWETT  MARDEN. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  3Iass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  0.  Houghton  &  Co. 


PEEFACE. 

The  demand  for  more  than  a  dozen  editions  of 
"  Pushing  to  the  Front "  during  its  first  year  and  its 
universally  favorable  reception,  both  at  home  and  abroad, 
have  encouraged  the  author  to  publish  this  companion 
volume  of  somewhat  similar  scope  and  purpose.  The 
two  books  were  prepared  simultaneously ;  and  the  story 
of  the  first,  given  in  its  preface,  applies  equally  well  to 
this. 

Inspiration  to  character-building  and  worthy  achieve- 
ment is  the  keynote  of  the  present  volume ;  its  object, 
to  arouse  to  honorable  exertion  youth  who  are  drifting 
without  aim,  to  awaken  dormant  ambitions  in  those 
who  have  grown  discouraged  in  the  struggle  for  success, 
to  encourage  and  stimulate  to  higher  resolve  those  who 
are  getting  out  to  make  their  own  way,  with  perhaps 
neither  friendship  nor  capital  other  than  a  determina- 
tion to  get  on  in  the  world. 

Nothing  is  so  fascinating  to  a  youth  with  high  pur- 
pose, life,  and  energy  throbbing  in  his  young  blood  as 
stories  of  men  and  women  who  have  brought  great 
things  to  pass.  Though  these  themes  are  as  old  as  the 
human  race,  yet  they  are  ever  new,  and  more  interest- 
ing to  the  young  than  any  fiction,  ^he  cry  of  youth  is 
for  life  !  more  life  !  No  didactic  or  dogmatic  teaching, 
however  brilliant,  will  capture  a  twentieth-century  boy, 
keyed  up  to  the  highest  pitch  by  the  pressure  of  an 
intense  civilization.  The  romance  of  achievement  under 
difficulties,  of  obscure  beginnings  and  triumphant  ends  ; 
the  story  of  how  great  men  started,  their  struggles,  their 
long  waitings,  amid  want  and  woe,  the  obstacles  over- 
come, the  final  triumphs  ;  examples,  which  explode  ex- 
cuses, of  men  who  have  seized  common  situations  and 
made  them  great ;  of  those  of  average  capacity  who  have 
succeeded  by  the  use  of  ordinary  means,  by  dint  of 
indomitable  will  and  inflexible  purpose :  these  will  most 


iv  PREFACE. 

inspire  the  ambitious  youth.  The  author  teaches  that 
there  are  bread  and  success  for  every  youth  under  the 
American  flag  who  has  the  grit  to  seize  his  chance  and 
work  his  w^ay  to  his  own  loaf ;  that  the  barriers  are  not 
yet  erected  w^hich  declare  to  aspiring  talent,  "  Thus  far 
and  no  farther  "  ;  that  the  most  forbidding  circumstances 
cannot  repress  a  longing  for  knowledge,  a  yearning  for 
growth ;  that  poverty,  humble  birth,  loss  of  limbs  or 
even  eyesight,  have  not  been  able  to  bar  the  progress 
of  men  with  grit ;  that  poverty  has  rocked  the  cradle 
of  the  giants  who  have  wrung  civilization  from  barbar- 
ism, and  have  led  the  world  up  from  savagery  to  the 
Gladstones,  the  Lincolns,  and  the  Grants. 

The  book  shows  that  it  is  the  man  with  one  unwaver- 
ing aim  who  cuts  his  way  through  opposition  and  forges 
to  the  front ;  that  in  this  electric  age,  wdiere  everything 
is  pusher  or  pushed,  he  who  w^ould  succeed  must  hold 
his  ground  and  push  hard;  that  what  are  stumbling- 
blocks  and  defeats  to  the  w^eak  and  vacillating,  are  but 
stepping-stones  and  victories  to  the  strong  and  deter- 
mined. The  author  teaches  that  every  germ  of  goodness 
will  at  last  struggle  into  bloom  and  fruitage,  and  that 
true  success  follows  every  right  step.  He  has  tried  to 
touch  the  higher  springs  of  the  youth's  aspiration  ;  to 
lead  him  to  high  ideals  ;  to  teach  him  that  there  is  some- 
thing nobler  in  an  occupation  than  merely  living-getting 
or  money-getting ;  that  a  man  may  make  millions  and 
be  a  failure  still ;  to  caution  youth  not  t©  allow  the 
maxims  of  a  low  prudence,  dinned  daily  into  his  ears 
in  this  money-getting  age,  to  repress  the  longings  for 
a  higher  life ;  that  the  hand  can  never  safely  reach 
higher  than  does  the  heart. 

The  author's  aim  has  been  largely  through  concrete 
illustrations  which  have  pith,  point,  and  purpose,  to 
be  more  suggestive  than  dogmatic,  in  a  style  more  prac- 
tical than  elegant,  more  helpful  than  ornate,  more  per- 
tinent than  novel. 

The  author  wishes  to  acknowledge  valuable  assistance 
from  Mr.  Arthur  W.  Brown,  of  W.  Kingston,  K.  I. 

O.  S.  M. 
43  BowDOiN  St.,  Boston,  Mass. 
December  2,  1895. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.   Wanted  —  A  Man 1 

God  isafter  amon.  Wealth  is  nothing,  fame  is  nothing.  Man- 
hood is  everything. 

II.   Dare 10 

Dare  to  live  thy  creed.  Conquer  your  place  in  the  world.  All 
things  serve  a  brave  soul. 

III.  The  Will  and  the  Way 38 

Find  a  way  or  make  one.  Everything  is  either  pusher  or 
pushed.     The  world  always  listens  to  a  man  with  a  will  in  him. 

IV.  Success  under  Difficulties 60 

There  is  scarcely  a  great  truth  or  doctrine  but  has  had  to  fight 
its  way  to  recognition  through  detraction,  calumny,  and  persecu- 
tion. 

V.  Uses  of  Obstacles 86 

The  Great  Sculptor  cares  little  for  the  human  block  as  such ; 
it  is  the  statue  He*  is  after ;  and  He  will  blast,  hammer,  and  chisel 
with  poverty,  hardships,  anything  to  get  out  the  man. 

VI.   One  Unwavering  Aim 107 

Find  your  purpose  and  fling  your  life  out  to  it.  Try  to  be 
somebody  with  all  your  might. 

VII.   Sowing  and  Reaping 125 

What  is  put  into  the  first  of  life  is  put  into  the  whole  of  life. 
Start  right. 

VIII.   Self-Help 145 

Self-made  or  never  made.  The  greatest  men  have  risen  from 
the  ranks. 

IX.  Work  and  Wait 167 

Don't  risk  a  life's  superstructure  upon  a  day's  foundation. 

X.   Clear  Grit % 186 

The  goddess  of  fame  or  of  fortune  has  been  won  by  many  a 
poor  boy  who  had  no  friends,  no  backing,  or  anything  but  pure 
grit  and  invincible  purpose  to  commend  him. 

XI.   The  Grandest  Thing  in  the  World 202 

Manhood  is  above  all  riches  and  overtops  all  titles ;  character 
is  greater  than  any  career. 

XII.  Wealth  in  Economy 227 

"  Hunger,  rags,  cold,  hard  work,  contempt,  suspicion,  unjust 
reproach,  are  disagreeable ;  but  debt  is  infinitely  worse  than  all." 


vi  CONTENTS. 

XIII.  Rich  without  Money 239 

To  have  nothing  is  not  poverty.  Whoever  viplifts  civilization  is 
rich  though  he  die  penniless,  and  future  generations  will  erect 
his  monument. 

XIV.  Opportunities  where  You  Are 256 

"  How  speaks  the  present  hour  ?  Act.''''  Don't  wait  for  great 
opportunities.    Seize  common  occasions  and  make  them  great. 

XV.   The  Might  of  Little  Things 268 

There  is  notliing  small  in  a  world  where  a  mud-crack  swells  to 
an  Amazon,  and  the  stealing  of  a  penny  may  end  on  the  scaffold. 

XVI.  Self-Mastery 288 

Guard  your  weak  point.     Be  lord  over  yourself. 

XVII.  Nature's  Little  Bill 306 

Many  a  man  pays  for  his  success  with  a  slice  of  his  constitution. 
Most  of  us  carry  our  creeds  in  our  bile-ducts.  K  they  are  healthy, 
we  are  optimists ;  if  diseased,  pessimists. 

XVIII.   Vocations,  Good  and  Bad 327 

Half  the  world  is  out  of  place  and  tortured  with  the  conscious- 
ness of  unfulfilled  destiny.  Civilization  will  mark  its  highest  tide 
when  every  man  finds  his  place  and  fills  it. 

XIX.  The  Man  with  an  Idea 343 

The  man  with  an  idea  has  ever  changed  the  face  of  the  world. 

XX.   Decision 358 

To  dally  with  your  purpose,  to  half  will,  to  hang  forever  in  the 
balance,  is  to  lose  your  grip  on  life, 

XXI.  Power  of  the  Mind  over  the  Body 370 

The  mind  has  power  to  keep  the  bodv  strong  and  healthy,  to 
renew  life,  and  to  preserve  it  from  decay  to  a  far  greater  extent 
than  we  are  apt  to  think. 

XXII.  The  Charities 390 

When  everybody  else  denounces  and  curses  a  man.  Charity 
says,  "  Wait :  there  is  a  god  in  that  man  somewhere." 

XXIII.  The  Curse  of  Idleness 410 

A  lazy  man  is  of  no  more  use  than  a  dead  man,  and  he  takes 
up  more  room. 

XXIV.  Our  Schools  and  Schoolmasters 421 

Poverty  and  hardship  have  ever  been  the  great  schoolmasters 
of  the  race,  and  have  forced  into  prominence  many  a  man  who 
would  otherwise  have  remained  unknown. 

XXV.  Books 430 

Perhaps  no  other  things  have  such  power  to  lift  the  poor  out  of 
poverty,  the  wretched  out  of  misery,  to  make  the  burden-bearer 
forget  his  burden,  the  sick  his  suffering,  as  books. 

XXVI.  Every  Man  his  own  Paradise 448 

Paradise  is  not  lost  except  to  those  who  have  blinded  their  eyes 
to  its  beauties,  stopped  their  ears  to  its  harmonies,  and  blunted 
their  sensibilities  to  its  sweet  experiences. 


LIST  OF  PORTRAITS. 

CHAP.  PAGE 

Columbus Frontispiece 

I.   Phillips  Brooks To  face  1 

II.   Oliver  Hazard  Perry 10 

III.  Walter  Scott 38 

IV.  William  Hickling  Prescott 60 

V.  John  Bunyan 86 

VI.   Bernard  Palissy 106 

VI.   Richard  Arkwright 112 

VII.   Victor  Hugo 124 

VIII.  James  A.  Garfield 144 

VIII.  Michael  Faraday 152 

IX.   Thomas  Alva  Edison 166 

X.  Andrew  Jackson 186 

XL  John  Greenleaf  Whittier 202 

XI.   Lafayette 216 

XII.   Alexander  Hamilton 226 

XIII.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson 238 

XIV.  Thomas  Jefferson.     .     .    • 256 

XV.   Louis  Agassiz 268 

XVI.   James  Russell  Lowell 288 

XVII.  James  G.  Blaine 306 

XVIII.   Charles  Sumner 326 

XIX.   George  Stephenson 342 

XIX.   Robert  Fulton 3.52 

XX.   Patrick  Henry 358 

XXI.    Alexander  H.  Stephens 370 

XXII.   Washington  Irving 390 

XXII.   Florence  Nightingale 400 

XXIV.  Henry  Clay 420 

XXV.    George  Eliot 430 

XXV.    Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow 440 

XXVI.  John  Ruskin 448 


'<i^ 


PHILLIPS   BROOKS 
"  The  best-loved  man  in  New  England." 
"  The  ideal  life,  the  life  full  of  completion,  haunts  us  all.     We  feel  the  thing  w^e 
ought  to  be  beating  beneath  the  thing  we  are." 
'■^ First,  be  a  man.''^ 


ARCHITECTS   OF   FATE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WANTED  —  A    MAN. 


"Wanted;  men: 

Not  systems  fit  and  wise, 

Not  faiths  with  rigid  eyes, 

Not  wealth  in  mountain  piles, 

Not  power  with  gracious  smiles. 

Not  even  the  potent  pen : 

Wanted;  men." 
Run  ye  to  and  fro  through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  and  see  now,  and 
know,  and  seek  in  the  broad  places  thereof,  if  ye  can  find  a  man.  — Jere- 
miah. 

All  the  world  cries,  Where  is  the  man  who  will  save  us  ?  We  want  a 
man !  Don't  look  so  far  for  this  man.  You  have  him  at  hand.  This  man, 
—  it  is  you,  it  is  I,  it  is  each  one  of  us !  .  .  .  How  to  constitute  one's  self 
a  man  ?  Nothing  harder,  if  one  knows  not  how  to  will  it;  nothing  easier, 
if  one  wills  it.  —  Alexandre  Dumas. 

"'Tis  life,  not  death  for  which  we  pant: 
'Tis  life,  whereof  our  nerves  are  scant: 
More  life  and  fuller,  that  we  want." 

I  do  not  wish  in  attempting  to  paint  a  man  to  describe  an  air-fed,  un- 
impassioned,  impossible  ghost.  My  eves  and  ears  ai*e  revolted  by  any 
neglect  of  the  physical  facts,  the  limitations  of  man.  — Emerson. 

But  nature,  with  a  matchless  hand,  sends  iorth  her  nobly  born, 
And  laughs  the  paltry  attributes  of  wealth  and  rank  to  scorn ; 
She  moulds  with  care  a  spirit  rare,  half  human,  half  divine, 
And  cries  exulting,  "  Who  can  make  a  gentleman  like  mine  ?  " 

Eliza  Cook. 

"In  a  thousand  cups  of  life,"  says  Emerson,  "only- 
one  is  the  right  mixture.  The  fine  adjustment  of  the 
existing  elements,  where  the  well-mixed  man   is  born 


2  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

with  eyes  not  too  dull,  nor  too  good,  with  fire  enough 
and  earth  enough,  capable  of  receiving  impressions 
from  all  things,  and  not  too  susceptible,  then  no  gift 
need  be  bestowed  on  him.     He  brings  his  fortune  with 

him." 

Diogenes  sought  with  a  lantern  at  noontide  m  ancient 
Atheiis  for  a  perfectly  honest  man,  and  sought  in  vain. 
In  the  market  place  he  once  cried  aloud,  "Hear  me, 
0  men ; "  and,  when  a  crowd  collected  around  him,  he 
said  scornfully  :  "  I  called  for  men,  not  pygmies." 

The  world  has  a  standing  advertisement  over  the 
door  of  every  profession,  every  occupation ;  every  call- 
ing :  "  Wanted  —  A  Man." 

AVanted,  a  man  who  will  not  lose  his  individuality  m 
a  crowd,  a  man  who  has  the  courage  of  his  convictions, 
who  is  not  afraid  to  say  ''No,"  though  all  the  world 
say  "Yes." 

Wanted,  a  man  who,  though  he  is  dominated  by  a 
mighty  purpose,  will  not  permit  one  great  faculty  to 
dwarf,  cripple,  warp,  or  mutilate  his  manhood ;  who 
will  not  allow  the  over-development  of  one  faculty  to 
stunt  or  paralyze  his  other  faculties. 

Wanted,  a  man  who  is  larger  than  his  calling,  who 
considers  it  a  low  estimate  of  his  occupation  to  value  it 
merely  as  a  means  of  getting  a  living.  Wanted,  a  man 
who  sees  self-development,  education  and  culture,  disci- 
pline and  drill,  character  and  manhood,  in  his  occupa- 
tion. 

A  thousand  pulpits  vacant  in  a  single  religious  de- 
nomination, a  thousand  preachers  standing  idle  in  the 
market  place,  while  a  thousand  church  committees  scour 
the  land  for  men  to  fill  those  same  vacant  pulpits,  and 
scour  in  vain,  is  a  sufficient  indication,  in  one  direction 
at  least,  of  the  largeness  of  the  opportunities  of  the 
age,  and  also  of  the  crying  need  of  good  men. 

Wanted,  a  man  who  is  well  balanced,  who  is  not 
cursed  with  some  little  defect  or  weakness  which  crip- 


WANTED  — A   MAN,  3 

pies  Ms  usefulness  and  neutralizes  his  powers.  Wanted, 
a  man  of  courage,  who  is  not  a  coward  in  any  part  of 
his  nature. 

Wanted,  a  man  who  is  symmetrical,  and  not  one- 
sided in  his  development,  who  has  not  sent  all  the 
energies  of  his  being  into  one  narrow  specialty,  and 
allowed  all  the  other  branches  of  his  life  to  wither  and 
die.  Wanted,  a  man  who  is  broad,  who  does  not  take 
half  views  of  things.  Wanted,  a  man  who  mixes  com- 
mon sense  with  his  theories,  who  does  not  let  a  college 
education  spoil  him  for  practical,  every-day  life  ;  a  man 
who  prefers  substance  to  show,  who  regards  his  good 
name  as  a  priceless  treasure. 

Wanted,  a  man  "  who,  no  stunted  ascetic,  is  full  of 
life  and  fire,  but  whose  passions  are  trained  to  heed  a 
strong  will,  the  servant  of  a  tender  conscience ;  who 
has  learned  to  love  all  beauty,  whether  of  nature  or  of 
art,  to  hate  all  vileness,  and  to  resi>ect  others  as  him- 
self." 

God  calls  a  man  to  be  upright  and  x^ure  and  gener- 
ous, but  he  also  calls  him  to  be  intelligent  and  skillful 
and  strong  and  brave. 

The  world  wants  a  man  who  is  educated  all  over; 
whose  nerves  are  brought  to  their  acutest  sensibility ; 
whose  brain  is  cultured,  keen,  incisive,  penetrating, 
broad,  liberal,  deep  ;  whose  hands  are  deft ;  whose  eyes 
are  alert,  sensitive,  microscopic  ;  whose  heart  is  tender, 
broad,  magnanimous,  true. 

The  whole  world  is  looking  for  such  a  man.  Al- 
though there  are  millions  out  of  employment,  yet  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  find  just  the. right  man  in  almost 
any  department  of  life.  Every  profession  and  every 
occupation  has  a  standing  advertisement  all  over  the 
world :  "  Wanted  —  A  Man." 

Eousseau,  in  his  celebrated  essay  on  education,  says : 
"  According  to  the  order  of  nature,  men  being  equal, 
their  common  vocation  is  the  profession  of  humanity ; 


4  AncHiTKcrs  or  fatk. 

aiul  wlioovor  is  woU  oiluoatod  to  ilisi'hari^o  tlu'  iliitv  o{ 
a  man  oannot  bo  badly  pivpaivd  to  till  any  of  thosi^ 
otlu'os  that  havo  a  volatiou  to  him.  It  luattors  littlo  to 
luo  whothor  my  |nipil  bo  tlosig-nod  tor  tho  army,  tho 
pulpit,  or  tho  bar.  Naturo  has  ilosliiunl  us  to  tho 
otUoos  ot  human  lito  autoooilont  to  our  dostinatiou  oon- 
oorniui;"  sooioty.  To  livo  is  tho  protossion  1  would 
toaoh  him.  Wlion  1  havo  ilouo  with  liim.  it  is  trm^  lu^ 
will  bo  noithor  a  sohlior.  a  lawyor.  nor  a  (liviiu\  l.c! 
him  jirst  be  a  man  :  Fortuno  may  romovo  him  from  (>no 
rank  to  anothor  as  sho  ploasos.  ho  will  bo  always  I'ouml 
in  his  plaoo." 

A  littlo,  short  ilootor  of  divinity  in  a  lar>;o  Uaptist 
oonvontion  stood  on  a  stop  and  said  ho  thaid;od  (Jod  ho 
was  a  Baptist.  Tho  audionoo  oould  not  hoar  and  oallod 
'•  Loudor."  "(lOt  up  hi^ihor,"  somo  ono  said.  "  I  oan't," 
ho  ropliod.  "  To  bo  a  Baptist  is  as  hii;h  as  ono  oan 
got."  Hut  thoro  is  sonu^thing  hii;hor  than  biMUi;-  a  Ba|>- 
tist,  and  that  is  boing  a  mnn. 

As  Kmorson  says,  Talloyrand's  tpiostion  is  ovor  tho 
main  ono:  not.  is  ho  rioh  ?  is  ho  oommittod  ?  is  ho 
woll-moaning- ?  has  ho  this  or  that,  faoulty '.'  is  hoof 
tho  movomont  ?  is  ho  o\'  tho  ostablishmont  ?  but  is  ho 
anybody?  doos  ho  stand  for  somothing  ?  llo  must  bo 
good  of  his  kind.  That  is  all  that  Talloyrand,  all  that 
Stato  Stroot,  all  that  tho  oonunon  sonsi^  of  mankiml 
asks. 

Whon  iiartiold  was  askod  as  a  young  boy,  '•what  ho 
luoant  to  bo."  ho  answorod:  **  First  of  all,  I  must  mako 
mysolf  a  man;  if  1  do  not  suooood  in  that.  I  oan  suc- 
ceed in  nothing." 

^lontaigne  says  our  work  is  not  to  train  a  soul  by  it- 
self alono,  nor  a  body  by  itself  alone,  but  to  train  a  man. 

C)ne  groat  need  of  the  world  to-day  is  for  men  and 
women  who  are  good  animals.  To  endure  the  strain 
of  our  oonoontratod  oivilization,  tho  ooming  man  and 
woman  must  havo  an  oxooss  of  animal  spirits.     They 


WANTED— A   MAN.  5 

muBt  have  a  robustness  of  health.  Mere  aVjsence  of 
disease  is  not  health.  It  is  the  overflowing  fountain, 
not  the  one  half  full,  that  gives  life  and  beauty  to  the 
valley  below.  Only  he  is  healthy  who  exults  in  mere 
aninial  existence;  whose  veiy  life  is  a  luxury^;  who 
feels  a  Vjounding  pulse  throughout  his  body ;  who  feels 
life  in  every  limb,  as  dogs  do  when  scouring  over  the 
field,  or  as  Vjoys  do  when  gliding  over  fiehls  of  ice. 

J-'ope,  the  jjoet,  was  with  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  the 
artist,  one  day,  when  the  lattei-^s  nephew,  a  Guinea 
slave-trader,  came  into  the  room.  "]S'ephew,"  said  Sir 
Godfrey,  "  you  have  the  honor  of  seeing  the  two  great- 
est men  in  the  world.''  "  I  don't  know  how  great  men 
you  may  be,"  said  the  Guinea  man,  '•  but  I  don't  like 
your  looks.  I  have  often  bought  a  much  better  man 
than  either  of  you,  all  muscles  and  bones,  for  ten 
guineas." 

Sydney  Smith  said,  "  I  am  convinced  that  digestion 
is  the  great  secret  of  life,  and  that  character,  virtue 
and  talents,  and  qualities  are  powerfully  affected  by 
beef,  mutton,  pie  crust,  and  rich  soups.  I  have  often 
thought  I  could  feed  or  starve  men  into .  virtues  or 
vices,  and  affect  them  more  jjowerfully  with  my  instm- 
ments  of  torture  than  Timotheus  could  do  formerly 
with  his  lyre." 

What  more  glorious  than  a  magnificent  manhood, 
animated  with  the  bounding  spirits  of  overflowing 
health  ? 

It  is  a  sad  sight  to  see  thousands  of  students  gradu- 
ated every  year  from  our  grand  institutions,  whose  ob- 
ject is  to  make  stalwart,  independent,  self-supporting 
men,  turned  out  into  the  world  saplings  instead  of  stal- 
wart oaks,  "  memory-glands "  instead  of  brainy  men, 
helpless  instead  of  self-supporting,  sickly  instead  of  ro- 
bust, weak  instead  of  strong,  leaning  instead  of  erect. 
"  So  many  promising  youths,  and  never  a  finished 
man ! " 


6  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

The  character  sympathizes  with  and  unconsciously 
takes  on  the  nature  of  the  body.  A  peevish,  snarling, 
ailing  man  cannot  develop  the  vigor  and  strength  of 
character  which  is  possible  to  a  healthy,  robust,  jolly 
man.  There  is  an  inherent  love  in  the  human  mind  for 
wholeness,  a  demand  that  man  shall  come  up  to  the  high- 
est standard ;  and  there  is  an  inherent  protest  or  con- 
tempt for  preventable  deficiency.  Nature  too  demands 
that  man  be  ever  at  the  top  of  his  condition.  The 
giant's  strength  with  the  imbecile's  brain  will  not  be 
characteristic  of  the  coming  man. 

Man  has  been  a  dwarf  of  himself,  but  a  higher  type  of 
manhood  stands  at  the  door  of  this  age  knocking  for 
admission. 

As  we  stand  upon  the  seashore  while  the  tide  is  com- 
ing in,  one  wave  reaches  up  the  beach  far  higher  than 
any  previous  one,  then  recedes,  and  for  some  time  none 
that  follows  comes  up  to  its  mark,  but  after  a  while 
the  whole  sea  is  there  and  beyond  it ;  so  now  and  then 
there  comes  a  man  head  and  shoulders  above  his  fellow- 
men,  showing  that  Nature  has  not  lost  her  ideal,  and 
after  a  while  even  the  average  man  will  overtop  the 
highest  wave  of  manhood  yet  given  to  the  world. 

Apelles  hunted  over  Greece  for  many  years,  studying 
the  fairest  points  of  beautiful  women,  getting  here  an 
eye,  there  a  forehead  and  there  a  nose,  here  a  grace  and 
there  a  turn  of  beauty,  for  his  famous  portrait  of  a  per- 
fect woman  which  enchanted  the  world.  So  the  coming 
man  will  be  a  composite,  many  in  one.  He  will  absorb 
into  himself  not  the  weakness,  not  the  follies,  but  the 
strength  and  the  virtues  of  other  types  of  men.  He  will 
be  a  man  raised  to  the  highest  power.  He  will  be  self- 
centred,  equipoised,  and  ever  master  of  himself.  His 
sensibility  will  not  be  deadened  or  blunted  by  viola- 
tion of  nature's  laws.  His  whole  character  will  be  im- 
pressible, and  will  respond  to  the  most  delicate  touches 
of  nature. 


WANTED  — A  MAN.  7 

What  a  piece  of  work  —  this  coming  man  !  "  How 
noble  in  reason.  How  infinite  in  faculties.  In  form 
and  motion  how  express  and  admirable,  in  action  how 
like  an  angel,  in  apprehension  how  like  a  god.  The 
beauty  of  the  world.     The  paragon  of  animals." 

The  first  requisite  of  all  education  and  discipline 
should  be  man-timber.  Tough  timber  must  come  from 
well  grown,  sturdy  trees.  Such  wood  can  be  turned  into 
a  mast,  can  be  fashioned  into  a  piano  or  an  exquisite 
carving.  But  it  must  become  timber  first.  Time  and 
patience  develop  the  sapling  into  the  tree.  So  through 
discipline,  education,  experience,  the  sapling  child  is 
developed  into  hardy  mental,  moral,  physical  timber. 

What  an  aid  to  character  building  would  be  the  de- 
termination of  the  young  man  in  starting  out  in  life  to 
consider  himself  his  own  bank ;  that  his  notes  will  be 
accepted  as  good  or  bad,  and  will  pass  current  every- 
where or  be  worthless,  according  to  his  individual  rep- 
utation for  honor  and  veracity  ;  that  if  he  lets  a  note  go 
to  protest,  his  bank  of  character  will  be  suspected ;  if 
he  lets  two  or  three  go  to  protest,  public  confidence  will 
be  seriously  shaken  ;  that  if  they  continue  to  go  to  pro- 
test, his  reputation  will  be  lost  and  confidence  in  him 
ruined. 

If  the  youth  should  start  out  with  the  fixed  determi- 
nation that  every  statement  he  makes  shall  be  the  exact 
truth  ;  that  every  promise  he  makes  shall  be  redeemed 
to  the  letter  ;  that  every  appointment  shall  be  kept  with 
the  strictest  faithfulness  and  with  full  regard  for  other 
men's  time ;  if  he  should  hold  his  reputation  as  a  price- 
less treasure,  feel  that  the  eyes  of,  the  world  are  upon 
him,  that  he  must  not  deviate  a  hair's  breadth  from  the 
truth  and  right ;  if  he  should  take  such  a  stand  at  the 
outset,  he  would,  like  George  Peabody,  come  to  have  al- 
most unlimited  credit  and  the  confidence  of  all ;  and 
would  have  developed  into  noble  man-timber. 

What  are  palaces  and  equipages ;  what  though  a  man 


8  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

could  cover  a  continent  with  his  title-deeds,  or  an 
ocean  with  his  commerce  ;  compared  with  conscious  rec- 
titude, with  a  face  that  never  turns  pale  at  the  accuser's 
voice,  with  a  bosom  that  never  throbs  with  the  fear  of  ex- 
posure, with  a  heart  that  might  be  turned  inside  out  and 
disclose  no  stain  of  dishonor  ?  To  have  done  no  man  a 
wrong ;  to  have  put  your  signature  to  no  paper  to  which 
the  purest  angel  in  heaven  might  not  have  been  an 
attesting  witness ;  to  walk  and  live,  unseduced,  within 
arm's  length  of  what  is  not  your  own,  with  nothing  be- 
tween your  desire  and  its  gratification  but  the  invisible 
law  of  rectitude  ;  —  this  is  to  he  a  man. 

"  He  that  of  siich  a  height  hath  built  his  mind, 
And  reared  the  dwelling  of  his  thought  so  strong 
As  neither  fear  nor  hope  can  shake  the  frame 
Of  his  resolved  powers  ;  nor  all  the  wind 
Of  vanit}'  or  malice  pierce  to  Avrong 
His  settled  peace,  or  to  disturb  the  same; 
What  a  fair  seat  hath  he  ;  from  whence  he  may 
The  boundless  wastes  and  wilds  of  man  survey." 

[Lines  found  in  one  of  the  books  of  Beecher^s  Library.'] 

A  man  is  never  so  happy  as  when  he  is  totus  in  se  ; 
as  when  he  suffices  to  himself,  and  can  walk  without 
crutches  or  a  guide.  Said  Jean  Paul  Eichter :  "I  have 
made  as  much  out  of  myself  as  could  be  made  of  the 
stuff,  and  no  man  should  require  more." 

Man  is  the  only  great  thing  in  the  universe.  All  the 
ages  have  been  trying  to  produce  a  perfect  model.  Only 
one  complete  man  has  yet  been  evolved.  The  best  of 
us  are  but  prophecies  of  what  is  to  come. 

What  constitutes  a  state? 
Not  high-raised  battlement  or  labored  mound, 

Thick  wall  or  moated  gate; 
Not  cities  proud  with  spires  and  turrets  crowned ; 

Not  bays  and  broad-armed  ports, 
Where,  laughing  at  the  storm,  rich  navies  ride; 

Not  starred  and  spangled  courts, 
Where  low-browed  baseness  wafts  perfume  to  pride. 

No:  men,  high-minded  men, 
With  powers  as  far  above  dull  brutes  endued 


WANTED  — A  MAN. 

In  forest,  brake,  or  den, 
As  beasts  excel  cold  rocks  and  brambles  rude,  — 

Men  who  their  duties  know, 
But  know  their  rights,  and  knowing,  dare  maintain, 

Prevent  the  long-aimed  blow, 
And  crush  the  tyrant  while  they  rend  the  chain. 

William  Jones. 
God  give  us  men.     A  time  like  this  demands 
Strong  minds,  great  hearts,  true  faith  and  ready  hands: 
Men  whom  the  lust  of  office  does  not  kill ; 
Men  whom  the  spoils  of  office  cannot  buy ; 
Men  who  possess  opinions  and  a  will; 
Men  who  have  honor  —  men  who  will  not  lie  ; 
Men  who  can  stand  before  a  demagogue 
And  scorn  his  treacherous  flatteries  without  winking; 
Tall  men  sun-crowned,  who  live  above  the  fog 
In  public  duty,  and  in  pj-ivate  thinking. 

Anon. 
Open  thy  bosom,  set  thy  wishes  wide. 
And  let  in  manhood  —let  in  happiness; 
Admit  the  boundless  theatre  of  thought 
From  nothing  up  to  God  .  .  .  which  makes  a  man ! 

Young. 
"  The  wisest  man  could  ask  no  more  of  fate 
Than  to  be  simple,  modest,  manly,  true." 

In  speech  right  gentle,  yet  so  wise;  princely  of  mien, 
Yet  softly  mannered ;  modest,  deferent. 
And  tender-hearted,  though  of  fearless  blood. 

Edwin  Arnold. 


CHAPTER   II. 

DARE. 

The  Spartans  did  not  inquire  how  many  the  euemj'  are,  but  where  they 
are.  —  Agis  II. 

What 's  brave,  what's  noble,  let's  do  it  after  the  high  Roman  fashion, 
and  make  death  proud  to  take  us.  —  Shakespeake. 
Better,  like  Hector,  in  the  field  to  die, 
Than,  like  a  perfumed  Paris,  turn  and  fly. 

LONGFfiLLOW. 

Let  me  die  facing  the  enemy.  —  Bayard. 

Who  conquers  me,  shall  find  a  stubborn  foe.  Byron. 

Courage  in  danger  is  half  the  battle.  Plautus. 

No  great  deed  is  done 
By  falterers  who  ask  for  certainty. 

George  Eliot. 

Fortune  befriends  the  bold.  —  Dryden. 

Tender  handed  stroke  a  nettle. 
And  it  stings  you  for  your  pains ; 

Grasp  it  like  a  man  of  mettle. 
And  it  soft  as  silk  remains. 

Aaron  Hill. 

We  make  way  for  the  man  who  boldly  pushes  past  us.  — Bovee. 

Man  should  dare  all  things  that  he  knows  is  right. 
And  fear  to  do  nothing  save  what  is  wrong. 

Phebe  Gary. 

Soft-heartedness,  in  times  like  these, 
Shows  softness  in  the  upper  story. 

Lowell. 
0  friend,  never  strike  sail  to  fear.     Come  into  port  grandly,  or  sail  with 
God  the  seas,  —  Emerson. 

To  stand  with  a  smile  upon  j-^our  face  against  a  stake  from  which  you 
cannot  get  away  —  that,  no  doubt,  is  heroic.  But  the  true  glory  is  resig- 
nation to  the  inevitable.  To  stand  unchained,  with  perfect  liberty  to  go 
away,  held  only  by  the  higher  claims  of  duty,  and  let  the  fire  creep  up  to 
the  heart, —this  is  heroism.  — F.  W.  Robertson. 

"  Steady,   men !     Every   man    must   die   where   he 
stands!"    said    Colin   Cami)bell   to   the   Ninety -third 


COMMODORE    PERRY 
We  have  met  the  enemy  and  tliey  are  ours. 

"  He  eithei-  fears  his  fate  too  much 
Or  his  deserts  too  small, 
That  dares  not  put  it  to  the  touch, 
To  gain  or  lose  it  all." 


DARE.  11 

Highlanders  at  Balaklava,  as  an  overwhelming  force  of 
Russian  cavalry  came  sweeping  down.  "Ay,  ay,  Sir 
Colin  !  we  '11  do  that !  "  was  the  cordial  response  from 
men  many  of  whom  had  to  keep  their  word  by  thus 
obeying. 

"Bring  back  the  colors,"  shouted  a  captain  at  the 
battle  of  the  Alma,  when  an  ensign  maintained  his 
ground  in  front,  although  the  men  were  retreating. 
"No,"  cried  the  ensign,  "bring  up  the  men  to  the 
colors."  "  To  dare,  and  again  to  dare,  and  without  end 
to  dare,"  was  Danton's  noble  defiance  to  the  enemies  of 
France. 

"  The  Commons  of  Erance  have  resolved  to  deliber- 
ate," said  Mirabeau  to  De  Breze,  who  brought  an  order 
from  the  king  for  them  to  disperse,  June  23,  1789. 
"We  have  heard  the  intentions  that  have  been  attrib- 
uted to  the  king;  and  you,  sir,  who  cannot  be  recog- 
nized as  his  organ  in  the  National  Assembly, — you, 
who  have  neither  place,  voice,  nor  right  to  speak,  — 
you  are  not  the  person  to  bring  to  us  a  message  of  his. 
Go,  say  to  those  who  sent  you  that  we  are  here  by  the 
power  of  the  people,  and  that  we  will  not  be  driven 
hence,  save  by  the  power  of  the  bayonet." 

When  the  assembled  senate  of  Rome  begged  Eegulus 
not  to  return  to  Carthage  to  fulfill  an  illegal  promise, 
he  calmly  replied :  "  Have  you  resolved  to  dishonor 
me  ?  Torture  and  death  are  awaiting  me,  but  what  are 
these  to  the  shame  of  an  infamous  act,  or  the  wounds 
of  a  guilty  mind  ?  Slave  as  I  am  to  Carthage,  I  still 
have  the  spirit  of  a  Roman.  I  have  sworn  to  return. 
It  is  my  duty.     Let  the  gods  take  care  of  the  rest." 

The  courage  which  Cranmer  had  shown  since  the 
accession  of  Mary  gave  way  the  moment  his  final 
doom  was  announced.  The  moral  cowardice  which  had 
displayed  itself  in  his  miserable  compliance  with  the  lust 
and  despotism  of  Henry  displayed  itself  again  in  six 
successive  recantations  by  which  he  hoped  to  purchase 


12  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

pardon.  But  pardon  was  impossible ;  and  Cranmer's 
strangely  mingled  nature  found  a  power  in  its  very  weak- 
ness wlien  he  was  brought  into  the  church  of  St.  Mary  at 
Oxford  on  the  21st  of  March,  to  repeat  his  recantation 
on  the  way  to  the  stake.  "  Now,"  ended  his  address  to 
the  hushed  congregation  before  him,  —  "  now  I  come  to 
the  great  thing  that  troubleth  my  conscience  more  than 
any  other  thing  that  ever  I  said  or  did  in  my  life,  and 
that  is  the  setting  abroad  of  writings  contrary  to  the 
truth ;  which  here  I  now  renounce  and  refuse  as  things 
written  by  a  hand  contrary  to  the  truth  which  I  thought 
in  my  heart,  and  written  for  fear  of  death  to  save  my 
life,  if  it  might  be.  And,  forasmuch  as  my  hand  of- 
fended in  writing  contrary  to  my  heart,  my  hand  there- 
fore shall  be  the  first  punished ;  for  if  I  come  to  the  fire 
it  shall  be  the  first  burned."  "  This  was  the  hand  that 
wrote  it,"  he  again  exclaimed  at  the  stake,  ''  therefore 
it  shall  suffer  first  punishment ;  "  and  holding  it  steadily 
in  the  flame,  "  he  never  stirred  nor  cried  till  life  was 
gone." 

"  Oh,  if  I  were  only  a  man ! "  exclaimed  Rebecca 
Bates,  a  girl  of  fourteen,  as  she  looked  from  the  win- 
dow of  a  lighthouse  at  Scituate,  Mass.,  during  the  War 
of  1812,  and  saw  a  British  warship)  anchor  in  the  har- 
bor. "  What  could  you  do  ?  "  asked  Sarah  Winsor,  a 
young  visitor.  "See  what  a  lot  of  them  the  boats 
contain,  and  look  at  their  guns  ! "  and  she  pointed  to 
five  large  boats,  filled  with  soldiers  in  scarlet  uniforms, 
who  were  coming  to  burn  the  vessels  in  the  harbor 
and  destroy  the  town.  "  I  don't  care,  I  'd  fight,"  said 
Rebecca.  "  I  'd  use  father's  old  shotgun  —  anything. 
Think  of  uncle's  new  boat  and  the  sloop  !  And  how 
hard  it  is  to  sit  here  and  see  it  all,  and  not  lift  a  fiuger 
to  help.  Father  and  uncle  are  in  the  village  and  will 
do  all  they  can.  How  still  it  is  in  the  town  !  There  is 
not  a  man  to  be  seen."  "  Oh,  they  are  hiding  till  the 
soldiers  get  nearer,"  said  Sarah  ;  '^  then  we  '11  hear  the 


DARE.  13 

shots  and  the  drum."  ^'  The  drum !  "  exclaimed  Ke- 
becca,  "how  can  they  use  it?  It  is  here.  Father 
brought  it  home  last  night  to  mend.  See  !  the  first 
boat  has  reached  the  sloop.  Oh  !  they  are  going  to 
burn  her.  AVhere  is  that  drum  ?  I  've  a  great  mind  to 
go  down  and  beat  it.  We  could  hide  behind  the  sand- 
hills and  bushes."  As  flames  began  to  rise  from  the 
sloop  the  ardor  of  the  girls  increased.  They  found  the 
drum  and  an  old  fife,  and,  slipping  out  of  doors  unno- 
ticed by  Mrs.  Bates,  soon  stood  behind  a  row  of  sand- 
hills. "  Eub-a-dub-dub,  rub-a-dub-dub,"  went  the  drum, 
and  "  squeak,  squeak,  squeak,"  went  the  fife.  The 
Americans  in  the  town  thought  that  help  had  come 
from  Boston,  and  rushed  into  boats  to  attack  the  red- 
coats. The  British  paused  in  their  work  of  destruc- 
tion; and,  when  the  fife  began  to  play  "Yankee 
Doodle,"  they  scrambled  into  their  boats  and  rowed  in 
haste  to  the  warship,  which  weighed  anchor  and  sailed 
away  as  fast  as  the  wind  would  carry  her. 

A  woman's  piercing  shriek  suddenly  startled  a  party 
of  surveyors  at  dinner  in  a  forest  of  northern  Virginia 
on  a  calm,  sunny  day  in  1750.  The  cries  were  repeated 
in  quick  succession,  and  the  men  sprang  through  the 
undergrowth  to  learn  their  cause.  "  Oh,  sir,"  exclaimed 
the  woman  as  she  caught  sight  of  a  j^outh  of  eighteen, 
but  a  man  in  stature  and  bearing  ;  "  you  will  surely  do 
something  for  me  !  Make  these  friends  release  me. 
My  boy,  —  my  poor  boy  is  drowning,  and  they  will  not 
let  me  go!"  "It  would  be  madness;  she  will  jump 
into  the  river,"  said  one  of  the  men  who  was  holding 
her;  "and  the  rapids  would  dasli^her  to  pieces  in  a 
moment !  "  Throwing  off  his  coat,  the  youth  sprang  to 
the  edge  of  the  bank,  scanned  for  a  moment  the  rocks 
and  whirling  currents,  and  then,  at  sight  of  part  of  the 
boy's  dress,  plunged  into  the  roaring  rapids.  "  Thank 
God,  he  will  save  my  child  ! "  cried  the  mother,  and  all 
rushed  to  the  brink  of  the  precipice  ;  "  there  he  is  !  Oh, 
my  boy,  my  darling  boy  !     How  could  I  leave  you  ?  " 


14  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

But  all  eyes  were  bent  upon  tlie  youth  struggling 
with  strong  heart  and  hope  amid  the  dizzy  sweep  of  the 
whirling  currents  far  below.  Now  it  seemed  as  if  he 
would  be  dashed  against  a  projecting  rock,  over  which 
the  water  flew  in  foam,  and  anon  a  whirlpool  would 
drag  him  in,  from  whose  grasp  escape  would  seem 
impossible.  Twice  the  boy  went  out  of  sight,  but  he 
had  reappeared  the  second  time,  although  frightfully 
near  the  most  dangerous  part  of  the  river.  The  rush 
of  waters  here  was  tremendous,  and  no  one  had  ever 
dared  to  approach  it,  even  in  a  canoe,  lest  he  should  be 
dashed  to  pieces.  The  youth  redoubled  his  exertions. 
Three  times  he  was  about  to  grasp  the  child,  when 
some  stronger  eddy  would  toss  it  from  him.  One  final 
effort  he  makes ;  the  child  is  held  aloft  by  his  strong 
right  arm ;  but  a  cry  of  horror  bursts  from  the  lips  of 
every  spectator  as  boy  and  man  shoot  over  the  falls  and 
vanish  in  the  seething  waters  below. 

"  There  they  are  ! "  shouted  the  mother  a  moment 
later,  in  a  delirium  of  joy.  "  See  !  they  are  safe  !  Great 
God,  I  thank  Thee  !  "  And  sure  enough  they  emerged 
unharmed  from  the  boiling  vortex,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
reached  a  low  place  in  the  bank  and  were  drawn  up 
by  their  friends,  the  boy  senseless,  but  still  alive,  and 
the  youth  almost  exhausted.  "God  will  give  you  a 
reward,"  solemnly  spoke  the  grateful  woman.  "He 
will  do  great  things  for  you  in  return  for  this  day's 
work,  and  the  blessings  of  thousands  besides  mine  will 
attend  you." 

The  youth  was  George  Washington. 

"Your  Grace  has  not  the  organ  of  animal  courage 
largely  developed,"  said  a  phrenologist,  who  was  exam- 
ining Wellington's  head.  "You  are  right,"  replied  the 
Iron  Duke,  "and  but  for  my  sense  of  duty  I  should 
have  retreated  in  my  first  fight."  That  first  fight,  on 
an  Indian  field,  was  one  of  the  most  terrible  on  record. 

In  the  reverses  which  followed  Napoleon,  he  met  the 


DARE.  15 

allies  at  Arcis.  A  live  shell  having  fallen  in  front  of 
one  of  his  young  battalions,  which  recoiled  and  wavered 
in.  expectation  of  an  explosion,  Napoleon,  to  reassure 
them,  spurred  his  charger  toward  the  instrument  of 
destruction,  made  him  smell  the  burning  match,  waited 
unshaken  for  the  explosion,  and  was  blown  up.  Kolling 
in  the  dust  with  his  mutilated  steed,  and  rising  without 
a  wound  amid  the  plaudits  of  his  soldiers,  he  calmly 
called  for  another  horse,  and  continued  to  brave  the 
grape-shot,  and  to  fly  into  the  thickest  of  the  battle. 

When  General  Jackson  was  a  judge  and  was  holding 
court  in  a  small  settlement,  a  border  ruffian,  a  murderer 
and  desperado,  came  into  the  court-room  with  brutal 
violence  and  interrupted  the  court.  The  judge  ordered 
him  to  be  arrested.  The  officer  did  not  dare  to  approach 
him.  '■^  Call  a  posse,"  said  the  judge,  "  and  arrest  him.'' 
But  they  also  shrank  in  fear  from  the  ruffian.  "  Call 
me,  then,"  said  Jackson ;  "  this  court  is  adjourned  for 
five  minutes."  He  left  the  bench,  walked  straight  up 
to  the  man,  and  with  his  eagle  eye  actually  cowed  the 
ruffian,  who  dropped  his  weapons,  afterwards  saying, 
"  There  was  something  in  his  eye  I  could  not  resist." 

One  of  the  last  official  acts  of  the  late  President 
Carnot,  of  France,  was  the  sending  of  a  medal  of  the 
French  Legion  of  Honor  to  a  little  American  girl,  who 
lives  in  Indiana.  While  a  train  on  the  Pan  Handle 
Railroad,  having  on  board  several  distinguished  French- 
men, was  bound  to  Chicago  and  the  World's  Fair,  Jennie 
Carey,  who  was  then  ten  years  old,  discovered  that  a 
trestle  was  on  fire,  and  that  if  the  train,  which  was 
nearly  due,  entered  it  a  dreadful  wreck  would  take 
place.  Thereupon  she  ran  out  upon  the  track  to  a  place 
where  she  could  be  seen  from  some  little  distance. 
Then  she  took  off  her  red  flannel  skirt  and,  when  the 
train  came  in  view,  waved  it  back  and  forth  across  the 
track.  It  was  seen,  and  the  train  stopped.  On  board 
of  it  were  seven  hundred  people,  many  of  whom  must 


16  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

have  suffered  death  but  for  Jennie's  courage  and  pres- 
ence of  mind.  When  they  returned  to  France,  the 
Frenchmen  brought  the  occurrence  to  the  notice  of 
President  Carnot,  and  the  result  was  the  sending  of  the 
medal  of  this  famous  French  society,  the  purpose  of 
which  is  the  honoring  of  bravery  and  merit,  wherever 
they  may  be  found. 

After  the  battle  of  Fort  Donelson,  the  wounded  were 
hauled  down  the  hill  in  rough  board  wagons,  and  most 
of  them  died  before  they  reached  St.  Louis.  One  blue- 
eyed  boy  of  nineteen,  Avith  both  arms  and  both  legs 
shattered,  had  lain  a  long  time  and  was  neglected.  He 
said,  "  Why,  you  see  they  could  n't  stop  to  bother  with 
us  because  they  had  to  take  the  fort.  When  they  took 
it  we  all  forgot  our  sufferings  and  shouted  for  joy,  even 
to  the  dying." 

Louis  IX.  of  France  was  captured  by  the  Turks  at 
the  battle  of  Mansoora,  during  the  Seventh  Crusade, 
and  his  wife  Marguerite,  with  a  babe  at  the  breast, 
was  in  Damietta,  many  miles  away.  The  Infidels  sur- 
rounded the  city,  and  pressed  the  garrison  so  hard  that 
it  was  decided  to  capitulate.  The  queen  summoned 
the  knights,  and  told  them  that  she  at  least  would  die 
in  armor  upon  the  ramparts  before  the  enemy  should 
become  masters  of  Damietta. 

"  Before  her  words  they  thrilled  like  leaves 
"When  winds  are  in  the  wood  ; 
And  a  deepening  murmur  told  of  men 
Roused  to  a  loftier  mood." 

Grasping  lance  and  shield,  they  vowed  to  defend 
their  queen  and  the  cross  to  the  last.  Damietta  was 
saved. 

Pyrrhus  marched  to  Sparta  to  reinstate  the  deposed 
Cleonymus,  and  quietly  pitched  his  tents  before  Laco- 
nia,  not  anticipating  resistance.  In  consternation,  the 
Spartans  in  council  decided  to  send  their  women  to 
Crete  for  safety.     But  the  women  met  and  asked  Queen 


DARE.  17 

Archidamia  to  remonstrate.  She  went  to  the  council, 
sword  in  hand,  and  told  the  men  that  their  wives  did 
not  care  to  live  after  Sparta  was  destroyed. 

"  We  are  brave  men's  mothers,  and  brave  men's  wives; 
We  are  ready  to  do  and  dare ; 
We  are  ready  to  man  your  walls  with  our  lives, 
And  string  your  bows  with  our  hair." 

They  hurried  to  the  walls  and  worked  all  night,  aid- 
ing the  men  in  digging  trenches.  When  Pyrrhus 
attacked  the  city  next  day,  his  repulse  was  so  emphatic 
that  he  withdrew  from  Laconia. 

Charles  V.  of  Spain  passed  through  Thuringia  in 
1547,  on  his  return  to  Swabia  after  the  battle  of  Muehl- 
burg.  He  wrote  to  Catherine,  Countess  Dowager  of 
Schwartzburg,  promising  that  her  subjects  should  not  be 
molested  in  their  persons  or  property  if  they  would 
supply  the  Spanish  soldiers  with  provisions  at  a  reason- 
able price.  On  approaching  Eudolstadt,  General  Alva 
and  Prince  Henry  of  Brunswick,  with  his  sons,  invited 
themselves,  by  a  messenger  sent  forward,  to  breakfast 
with  the  Countess,  who  had  no  choice  but  to  ratify  so 
delicate  a  request  from  the  commander  of  an  army. 
Just  as  the  guests  were  seated  at  a  generous  repast,  the 
Countess  was  called  from  the  hall  and  told  that  the 
Spaniards  were  using  violence  and  driving  away  the 
cattle  of  the  peasants. 

Quietly  arming  all  her  retinue,  she  bolted  and  barred 
all  the  gates  and  doors  of  the  castle,  and  returned  to 
the  banquet  to  complain  of  the  breach  of  faith.  Gen- 
eral Alva  told  her  that  such  was  the  custom  of  war, 
adding  that  such  trifling  disorders  were  not  to  be 
heeded.  "That  we  shall  presently  see,"  said  Catha- 
rine ;  "  my  poor  subjects  must  have  their  own  again, 
or,  as  God  lives,  prince's  blood  for  oxen's  blood  ! "  The 
doors  were  opened,  and  armed  men  took  the  places  of 
the  waiters  behind  the  chairs  of  the  guests.  Henry 
changed  color;   then,  as  the  best  way  out  of  a  bad 


18  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

scrape,  laughed  loudly,  and  ended  by  praising  the 
splendid  acting  of  his  hostess,  and  promising  that  Alva 
should  order  the  cattle  restored  at  once.  Not  until  a 
courier  returned,  saying  that  the  order  had  been  obeyed, 
and  all  damages  settled  satisfactorily,  did  the  armed 
waiters  leave.  The  Countess  then  thanked  her  guests 
for  the  honor  they  had  done  her  castle,  and  they  retired 
with  protestations  of  their  distinguished  consideration. 

It  was  the  heroic  devotion  of  an  Indian  girl  that 
saved  the  life  of  Captain  John  Smith,  when  the  power- 
ful King  Powhatan  had  decreed  his  death.  Ill  could 
the  struggling  colony  spare  him  at  that  time. 

When  the  consul  shouted  that  the  bridge  was  totter- 
ing, Lartius  and  Herminius  sought  safety  in  flight.  But 
Horatius  strode  still  nearer  the  foe,  the  single  champion 
of  his  country  and  liberty,  and  dared  the  ninety  thou- 
sand to  come  on.  Dead  stillness  fell  upon  the  Tuscans, 
so  astonished  were  they  at  the  audacity  of  the  Eoman. 
He  first  broke  the  awful  silence,  so  deep  that  his  clear, 
strong  voice  could  be  heard  by  thousands  in  both 
armies,  between  which  rolled  the  Tiber,  as  he  denounced 
the  baseness  and  perfidy  of  the  invaders.  Not  until 
his  words  were  drowned  by  the  loud  crash  of  fiercely 
disrupturing  timbers,  and  the  sullen  splash  of  the  dark 
river,  did  his  enemies  hurl  their  showers  of  arrows  and 
javelins.  Then,  dexterously  warding  off  the  missiles 
with  his  shield,  he  plunged  into  the  Tiber.  Although 
stabbed  in  the  hip  by  a  Tuscan  spear  which  lamed  him 
for  life,  he  swam  in  safety  to  Kome. 

"It  is  a  bad  omen,"  said  Eric  the  Eed,  when  his 
horse  slipped  and  fell  on  the  way  to  his  ship,  moored 
on  the  coast  of  Greenland,  in  readiness  for  a  voyage  of 
discovery.  ''Ill-fortune  would  be  mine  should  I  dare 
venture  now  upon  the  sea."  So  he  returned  to  his 
house ;  but  his  young  son  Leif  decided  to  go,  and,  with 
a  crew  of  thirty-five  men,  sailed  southward  in  search 
of  the  unknown  shore  upon  which  Captain  Biarni  had 


DARE.  19 

been  driven  by  a  starm,  while  sailing  in  another  Viking 
ship  two  or  three  years  before.  The  first  land  that 
they  saw  was  probably  Labrador,  a  barren,  rugged 
plain.  Leif  called  this  country  Heluland,  or  the  land 
of  fiat  stones.  Sailing  onward  many  days,  he  came  to  a 
low,  level  coast  thickly  covered  with  woods,  on  account 
of  which  he  called  the  country  Markland,  probably  the 
modern  Nova  Scotia.  ,  Sailing  onward,  they  came  to  an 
island  which  they  named  Vinland  on  account  of  the 
abundance  of  delicious  wild  grapes  in  the  woods.  This 
was  in  the  year  1000.  Here  where  the  city  of  Newport, 
R.  I.,  stands,  they  spent  many  months,  and  then  re- 
turned to  Greenland  with  their  vessel  loaded  with 
grapes  and  strange  kinds  of  wood.  The  voyage  was 
successful,  and  no  doubt  Eric  was  sorry  he  had  been 
frightened  by  the  bad  omen. 

May  10,  1796,  Napoleon  carried  the  bridge  at  Lodi, 
in  the  face  of  the  Austrian  batteries.  Fourteen  cannon 
—  some  accounts  say  thirty  —  were  trained  upon  the 
French  end  of  the  structure.  Behind  them  were  six 
thousand  troops.  Napoleon  massed  four  thousand  gren- 
adiers at  the  head  of  the  bridge,  with  a  battalion  of 
three  hundred  carbineers  in  front.  At  the  tap  of  the 
drum  the  foremost  assailants  wheeled  from  the  cover  of 
the  street  wall  under  a  terrible  hail  of  grape  and  canis- 
ter, and  attempted  to  pass  the  gateway  to  the  bridge. 
The  front  ranks  went  down  like  stalks  of  grain  before 
a  reaper;  the  column  staggered  and  reeled  backward, 
and  the  valiant  grenadiers  were  appalled  by  the  task 
before  them.  Without  a  word  or  a  look  of  reproach, 
Napoleon  placed  himself  at  their  head,  and  his  aids 
and  generals  rushed  to  his  side.  Forward  again,  this 
time  over  heaps  of  dead  that  choked  the  passage,  and 
a  quick  run,  counted  by  seconds  only,  carried  the  col- 
umn across  two  hundred  yards  of  clear  space,  scarcely 
a  shot  from  the  Austrians  taking  effect  beyond  the 
point  where  the  platoons  wheeled  for  the  first  leap. 


20  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

So  sudden  and  so  miraculous  was  it  all  that  the  Aus- 
trian artillerists  abandoned  their  guns  instantly,  and 
their  supports  fled  in  a  panic  instead  of  rushing  to  the 
front  and  meeting  the  French  onslaught.  This  Napo- 
leon had  counted  on  in  making  the  bold  attack.  The 
contrast  between  Napoleon's  slight  figure  and  the  mas- 
sive grenadiers  suggested  the  nickname  "Little  Cor- 
poral." 

The  great  secret  of  the  success  of  Joan  of  Arc  was 
the  boldness  of  her  attacks. 

When  Stephen  of  Colonna  fell  into  the  hands  of  base 
assailants,  and  they  asked  him  in  derision,  "Where  is 
now  your  fortress  ? "  "  Here,"  was  his  bold  reply, 
placing  his  hand  upon  his  heart. 

It  was  after  the  Mexican  War  when  General  Mc- 
Clellan  was  employed  as  a  topographical  engineer  in 
surveying  the  Pacific  coast.  From  his  headquarters  at 
Vancouver  he  had  gone  south  to  the  Columbia  River 
with  two  companions,  a  soldier  and  a  servant.  One 
evening  he  received  word  that  the  chiefs  of  the 
Columbia  River  tribes  desired  to  confer  with  him. 
From  the  messenger's  manner  he  suspected  that  the 
Indians  meant  mischief.  He  Avarned  his  companions 
that  they  must  be  ready  to  leave  camp  at  a  moment's 
notice.  Mounting  his  horse,  he  rode  boldly  into  the 
Indian  village.  About  thirty  chiefs  were  holding  coun- 
cil. McClellan  was  led  into  the  circle,  and  placed  at 
the  right  hand  of  Saltese.  He  was  familiar  with  the 
Chinook  jargon,  and  could  understand  every  word 
spoken  in  the  council.  Saltese  made  known  the  griev- 
ance of  the  tribes.  Two  Indians  had  been  captured  by 
a  party  of  white  pioneers  and  hanged  for  theft.  Retal- 
iation for  this  outrage  seemed  indispensable.  The 
chiefs  pondered  long,  but  had  little  to  say.  McClellan 
had  been  on  friendly  terms  with  them,  and  was  not 
responsible  for  the  forest  executions.  Still,  he  was  a 
white  man,  and  the  chiefs  had  vowed  vengeance  against 


DARE.  21 

the  race.  The  council  was  prolonged  for  hours  before 
sentence  was  passed,  and  then  Saltese,  in  the  name  of 
the  head  men  of  the  tribes,  decreed  that  McClellan 
should  immediately  be  put  to  death  in  retaliation  for 
the  hanging  of  the  two  Indian  thieves. 

McClellan  had  said  nothing.  He  had  known  that 
argument  and  pleas  for  justice  or  mercy  would  be  of 
no  avail.  He  had  sat  motionless,  apparently  indiffer- 
ent to  his  fate.  By  his  listlessness  he  had  thrown  his 
captors  off  their  guard.  When  the  sentence  was  passed 
he  acted  like  a  flash.  Flinging  his  left  arm  around  the 
neck  of  Saltese,  he  whipped  out  his  revolver  and  held 
it  close  to  the  chief's  temple.  "  Revoke  that  sentence, 
or  I  shall  kill  you  this  instant !  "  he  cried,  with  his 
fingers  clicking  the  trigger.  "  I  revoke  it ! "  exclaimed 
Saltese,  fairly  livid  from  fear.  "I  must  have  your 
word  that  I  can  leave  this  council  in  safety."  "  You 
have  the  word  of  Saltese,"  was  the  quick  response. 
McClellan  knew  how  sacred  was  the  pledge  which  he 
had  received.  The  revolver  was  lowered.  Saltese  was 
released  from  the  embrace  of  the  strong  arm.  McClel- 
lan strode  out  of  the  tent  with  his  revolver  in  his  hand. 
Not  a  hand  was  raised  against  him.  He  mounted  his 
horse  and  rode  to  his  camp,  where  his  two  followers 
were  ready  to  spring  into  the  saddle  and  to  escape  from 
the  villages.  He  owed  his  life  to  his  quickness  of  per- 
ception, and  to  his  accurate  knowledge  of  Indian  char- 
acter. 

In  1856,  Rufus  Choate  spoke  to  an  audience  of 
nearly  five  thousand  in  Lowell  in  favor  of  the  candi- 
dacy of  James  Buchanan  for  the  presidency.  The 
floor  of  the  great  hall  began  to  sink,  settling  more  and 
more  as  he  proceeded  with  his  address,  until  a  sound 
of  cracking  timber  below  would  have  precipitated  a 
stampede  with  fatal  results  but  for  the  coolness  of  B. 
F.  Butler,  who  presided.  Telling  the  people  to  remain 
quiet,  he   said  that  he  would  see   if  there   were  any 


22  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

cause  for  alarm.  He  found  the  supports  of  the  floor  in 
so  bad  a  condition  that  the  slightest  applause  would  be 
likely  to  bury  the  audience  in  the  ruins  of  the  building. 
Eeturning  rather  leisurely  to  the  platform,  he  whis- 
pered to  Ohoate  as  he  passed,  "  We  shall  all  be  in 

in  five  minutes;"  then  he  told  the  crowd  that  there 
^vas  no  immediate  danger  if  they  would  slowly  dis- 
perse, although  he  thought  it  prudent  to  adjourn  to  a 
place  where  there  would  be  no  risk  whatever.  The 
post  of  danger,  he  added,  was  on  the  platform,  which 
was  most  w^eakly  supported,  therefore  he  and  those 
with  him  would  be  the  last  to  leave.  No  doubt  many 
lives  were  saved  by  his  coolness. 

Many  distinguished  foreign  and  American  statesmen 
were  present  at  a  fashionable  dinner  party  where  wine 
was  freely  poured,  but  Schuyler  Colfax,  then  vice- 
president  of  the  United  States,  declined  to  drink  from 
a  proffered  cup.  "  Colfax  dares  not  drink,"  sneered  a 
Senator  who  had  already  taken  too  much.  "You  are 
rie-ht."  said  the  Vice-President,  ''  I  dare  not." 

When  Grant  was  in  Houston  several  years  ago,  he 
was  given  a  rousing  reception.  Naturally  hospitable, 
and  naturally  inclined  to  like  a  man  of  Grant's 
make-up,  the  Houstonites  determined  to  go  beyond 
any  other  Southern  city  in  the  way  of  a  banquet  and 
other  manifestations  of  their  good-will  and  hospitality. 
They  made  great  preparations  for  the  dinner,  the  com- 
mittee taking  great  pains  to  have  the  finest  wines  that 
could  be  procured  for  the  table  that  night.  When  the 
time  came  to  serve  the  wine,  the  head-waiter  went  first 
to  Grant.  Without  a  word  the  general  quietly  turned 
down  all  the  glasses  at  his  plate.  This  movement  was 
a  great  surprise  to  the  Texans,  but  they  were  equal  to 
the  occasion.  Without  a  single  word  being  spoken, 
every  man  along  the  line  of  the  long  tables  turned  his 
glasses  down,  and  there  was  not  a  drop  of  wine  taken 
that  night. 


DARE.  23 

A  deep  sewer  at  Noyon,  France,  had  been  opened  for 
repairs,  and  carelessly  left  at  night  without  covering 
or  liglits  to  warn  people  of  danger.  Late  at  night  four 
men  stumbled  in,  and  lay  some  time  before  their  sit- 
uation was  known  in  the  town.  No  one  dared  go  to 
the  aid  of  the  men,  then  unconscious  from  breathing 
noxious  gases,  except  Catherine  Vassen,  a  servant  girl 
of  eighteen.  She  insisted  on  being  lowered  at  once. 
Fastening  a  rope  around  two  of  the  men,  she  aided  in 
raising  them  and  restoring  them  to  consciousness. 
Descending  again,  she  had  just  tied  a  rope  around  a 
third  man,  when  she  felt  her  breath  failing.  Tying 
another  rope  to  her  long,  curly  hair,  she  swooned,  but 
was  drawn  up  with  the  man,  to  be  quickly  revived  by 
fresh  air  and  stimulants.  The  fourth  man  was  dead 
when  his  body  was  pulled  up,  on  account  of  the  delay 
from  the  fainting  of  Catherine. 

Two  French  officers  at  Waterloo  were  advancing  to 
charge  a  greatly  superior  force.  One,  observing  that 
the  other  showed  signs  of  fear,  said,  "  Sir,  I  believe 
you  are  frightened."  "  Yes,  I  am,"  was  the  reply, 
"and  if  you  were  half  as  much  frightened,  you  would 
run  away." 

"That's  a  brave  man,"  said  Wellington,  when  he 
saw  a  soldier  turn  pale  as  he  marched  against  a  bat- 
tery ;  "  he  knows  his  danger,  and  faces  it." 

"  There  are  many  cardinals  and  bishops  at  Worms," 
said  a  friend  to  Luther,  "  and  they  will  burn  your  body 
to  ashes  as  they  did  that  of  John  Huss."  Luther 
replied :  "  Although  they  should  make  a  fire  that  should 
reach  from  Worms  to  Wittenberg,  and  that  should 
flame  up  to  heaven,  in  the  Lord's  name  I  would  pass 
through  it  and  appear  before  them."  He  said  to 
another  :  "  I  would  enter  AVorms  though  there  were  as 
many  devils  there  as  there  are  tiles  upon  the  roofs  of 
the  houses."  Another  said  :  "  Duke  George  will  surely 
arrest  you."     He  replied:  "It  is  my  duty  to  go,  and 


24  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

I  will  go,  though  it  rain  Duke  Georges  for  nine  days 
together." 

''  Here  I  stand,  I  cannot  do  otherwise,  God  help  me," 
exclaimed  Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms,  facing  his  foes. 

A  Western  paper  recently  invited  the  surviving 
Union  and  Confederate  officers  to  give  an  account  of 
the  bravest  act  observed  by  each  during  the  Civil  War. 
Colonel  Thomas  AV.  Higginson  said  that  at  a  dinner  at 
Beaufort,  S.  C,  where  wine  flowed  freely  and  ribald 
jests  were  bandied.  Dr.  Miner,  a  slight,  boyish  fellow 
who  did  not  drink,  was  told  that  he  could  not  go  until 
he  had  drunk  a  toast,  told  a  story,  or  sung  a  song.  He 
replied :  "  I  cannot  sing,  but  I  will  give  a  toast,  al- 
though I  must  drink  it  in  water.  It  is  '  Our  Mothers.'  " 
The  men  Avere  so  affected  and  ashamed  that  some  took 
him  by  the  hand  and  thanked  him  for  displaying  cour- 
age greater  than  that  required  to  walk  up  to  the  mouth 
of  a  cannon. 

It  took  great  courage  for  the  commercial  Quaker, 
John  Bright,  to  espouse  a  cause  which  called  down 
upon  his  head  the  derision  and  scorn  and  hatred  of  the 
Parliament.  For  years  he  rested  under  a  cloud  of 
obloquy,  but  Bright  was  made  of  stern  stuff.  It  was 
only  his  strength  of  character  and  masterly  eloquence, 
which  saved  him  from  political  annihilation.  To  a 
man  who  boasted  that  his  ancestors  came  over  with  the 
Conquerors,  he  replied,  "  I  never  heard  that  they  did 
anything  else."  A  Tory  lordling  said,  when  Bright 
was  ill,  that  Providence  had  inflicted  upon  Bright, 
for  the  measure  of  his  talents,  disease  of  the  brain. 
When  Bright  went  back  into  the  Commons  he  replied : 
"  This  may  be  so,  but  it  will  be  some  consolation  to  the 
friends  and  family  of  the  noble  lord  to  know  that  that 
disease  is  one  which  even  Providence  cannot  inflict 
upon  him." 

''When  a  resolute  young  fellow  steps  up  to  the  great 
bully,  the  World,  and  takes  him  boldly  by  the  beard," 


DARE.  25 

says  Holmes,  "  he  is  often  surprised  to  find  it  come  off 
in  his  hand,  and  that  it  was  only  tied  on  to  scare  away 
timid  adventurers." 

It  takes  courage  for  a  young  man  to  stand  firmly 
erect  while  others  are  bowing  and  fawning  for  praise 
and  power.  It  takes  courage  to  wear  threadbare 
clothes  while  your  comrades  dress  in  broadcloth.  It 
takes  courage  to  remain  in  honest  poverty  when  others 
grow  rich  by  fraud.  It  takes  courage  to  say  "  No  '^ 
squarely  when  those  around  you  say  "  Yes."  It  takes 
courage  to  do  your  duty  in  silence  and  obscurity  while 
others  prosper  and  grow  famous  although  neglecting 
sacred  obligations.  It  takes  courage  to  unmask  your 
true  self,  to  show  your  blemishes  to  a  condemning 
world,  and  to  pass  for  what  you  really  are. 

It  takes  courage  and  pluck  to  be  outvoted,  beaten, 
laughed  at,  scoffed,  ridiculed,  derided,  misunderstood, 
misjudged,  to  stand  alone  with  all  the  world  against 
you,  but 

"  They  are  slaves  who  dare  not  be 
111  the  right  with  two  or  three." 

"  There  is  never  wanting  a  dog  to  bark  at  you." 
"  An  honest  man  is  not  the  worse  because  a  dog  barks 
at  him." 

"Let  any  man  show  the  world  that  he  feels 
Afraid  of  its  bark,  and  'twill  fly  at  his  heels. 
Let  him  fearlessly  face  it,  'twill  leave  him  alone, 
And  't  will  fawn  at  his  feet  if  he  fling  it  a  bone." 

We  live  ridiculously  for  fear  of  being  thought  ridicu- 
lous. 

*"T  is  he  is  the  coward  who  proves  false  to  his  vows, 
To  his  manhood,  his  honor,  for  a  laugh  or  a  sneer: 
'Tis  he  is  the  hero  who  stands  firm,  though  alone, 
For  the  truth  and  the  right  without  flinching  or  fear." 

The  youth  who  starts  out  by  being  afraid  to  speak 
what  he  thinks  will  usually  end  by  being  afraid  to 
think  what  he  wishes. 


26  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

How  we  shrink  from  an  act  of  our  own.  We  live  as 
others  live.  Custom  or  fashion  dictates,  or  your 
doctor  or  minister,  and  they  in  turn  dare  not  dej^art 
from  their  schools.  Dress,  living,  servants,  carriages, 
everything  must  conform,  or  be  ostracized.  Who  dares 
conduct  his  household  or  business  affairs  in  his  own 
way,  and  snap  his  fingers  at  Dame  Grundy  ? 

Many  a  man  has  marched  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth 
in  battle  who  dared  not  face  public  opinion  or  oppose 
Mrs.  Grundy. 

It  takes  courage  for  a  public  man  to  bend  the  knee 
to  popular  prejudice.  It  takes  courage  to  refuse  to 
follow  custom  when  it  is  injurious  to  his  health  and 
morals.  To  espouse  an  unpopular  cause  in  Congress 
requires  more  courage  than  to  lead  a  charge  in  battle. 
How  much  easier  for  a  politician  to  prevaricate  and 
dodge  an  issue  than  to  stand  squarely  on  his  feet  like  a 
man. 

As  a  rule,  eccentricity  is  a  badge  of  power,  but  how 
many  women  would  not  rather  strangle  their  individ- 
uality than  be  tabooed  by  Mrs.  Grundy  ?  Yet  fear  is 
really  the  only  thing  to  fear. 

"  Whoever  you  may  be,"  said  Sainte-Beuve,  "  great 
genius,  distinguished  talent,  artist  honorable  or  ami- 
able, the  qualities  for  which  you  deserve  to  be  praised 
will  all  be  turned  against  you.  Were  you  a  Virgil,  the 
pious  and  sensible  singer  par  excellence,  there  are 
people  who  will  call  you  an  effeminate  poet.  Were 
you  a  Horace,  there  are  people  who  will  reproach  you 
with  the  very  purity  and  delicacy  of  your  taste.  If  you 
were  a  Shakespeare,  some  one  will  call  you  a  drunken 
savage.  If  you  were  a  Goethe,  more  than  one  Pharisee 
will  proclaim  you  the  most  selfish  of  egotists." 

As  the  strongest  man  has  a  weakness  somewhere,  so 
the  greatest  hero  is  a  coward  somewhere.  Peter  was 
courageous  enough  to  draw  his  sword  to  defend  his 
master,  but  he  could  not  stand   the  ridicule  and  the 


DARE.  27 

finger  of  scorn  of  the  maidens  in  the  high  priest's  hall, 
and  he  actually  denied  even  the  acquaintance  of  the 
master  he  had  declared  he  would  die  for. 

"  I  will  take  the  responsibility/'  said  Andrew  Jack- 
son, on  a  memorable  occasion,  and  his  words  have 
become  proverbial.  Not  even  Congress  dared  to  oppose 
the  edicts  of  John  Quincy  Adams. 

If  a  man  would  accomplish  anything  in  this  world, 
he  must  not  be  afraid  of  assuming  responsibilities. 
Of  course  it  takes  courage  to  run  the  risk  of  failure,  to 
be  subjected  to  criticism  for  an  unpopular  cause,  to 
expose  one's  self  to  the  shafts  of  everybody's  ridicule, 
but  the  man  who  is  not  true  to  himself,  who  cannot 
carry  out  the  sealed  orders  placed  in  his  hands  at  his 
birth,  regardless  of  the  world's  yes  or  no,  of  its  approval 
or  disapproval,  the  man  who  has  not  the  courage  to 
trace  the  pattern  of  his  own  destiny,  which  no  other 
soul  knows  but  his  own,  can  never  rise  to  the  true 
dignity  of  manhood.  All  the  world  loves  courage ; 
youth  craves  it ;  they  want  to  hear  about  it,  they  want 
to  read  about  it.  The  fascination  of  the  "blood  and 
thunder  '^  novels  and  of  the  cheap  story  papers  for  youth 
are  based  upon  this  idea  of  courage.  If  the  boys  cannot 
get  the  real  article,  they  will  take  a  counterfeit. 

Don't  be  like  Uriah  Heep,  begging  everybody's 
pardon  for  taking  the  liberty  of  being  in  the  world. 
There  is  nothing  attractive  in  timidity,  nothing  lovable 
in  fear.  Both  are  deformities  and  are  repulsive. 
Manly  courage  is  dignified  and  graceful.  The  worst 
manners  in  the  world  are  those  of  persons  conscious  "  of 
being  beneath  their  position,  and  trying  to  conceal  it 
or  make  up  for  it  by  style." 

Bruno,  condemned  to  be  burned  alive  in  Kome,  said 
to  his  judge  :  "  You  are  more  afraid  to  pronounce  my 
sentence  than  I  am  to  receive  it."  Anne  Askew,  racked 
until  her  bones  were  dislocated,  never  flinched,  but 
looked  her  tormentor  calmly  in  the  face  and  refused  to 
abjure  her  faith. 


28  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  We  are  afraid  of  truth,  afraid  of  fortune,  afraid  of 
death,  and  afraid  of  each  other."  "  Half  a  man's  wisdom 
goes  with  his  courage,"  said  Emerson.  Physicians 
used  to  teach  that  courage  depends  on  the  circulation 
of  the  blood  in  the  arteries,  and  that  during  passion, 
anger,  trials  of  strength,  wrestling  or  fighting,  a  large 
amount  of  blood  is  collected  in  the  arteries,  and  does 
not  pass  to  the  veins.  A  strong  pulse  is  a  fortune  in 
itself. 

"Eage,"  said  Shaftesbury,  "can  make  a  coward 
forget  himself  and  light." 

"  I  should  have  thought  fear  would  have  kept  you 
from  going  so  far,"  said  a  relative  who  found  the  little 
boy  Nelson  wandering  a  long  distance  from  home. 
"  Fear  ?  "  said  the  future  admiral,  "  I  don't  know  him." 

"Doubt  indulged  becomes  doubt  realized."  To  de- 
termine to  do  anything  is  half  the  battle.  "  To  think  a 
thing  is  impossible  is  to  make  it  so."  Courage  is  vic- 
tor ij,  timiditf/  is  defeat. 

That  simple  shepherd-lad,  David,  fresh  from  his 
flocks,  marching  unattended  and  unarmed,  save  with 
his  shepherd's  staff  and  sling,  to  confront  the  colossal 
Goliath  with  his  massive  armor,  is  the  sublimest  auda- 
city the  world  has  ever  seen. 

"  Dent,  I  wish  you  would  get  down,  and  see  what  is 
the  matter  with  that  leg  there,"  said  Grant,  when  he 
and  Colonel  Dent  were  riding  through  the  thickest  of 
a  fire  that  had  become  so  concentrated  and  murderous 
that  his  troops  had  all  been  driven  back.  "I  guess 
looking  after  your  horse's  legs  can  wait,"  said  Dent ; 
"  it  is  simply  murder  for  us  to  sit  here."  "  All  right," 
said  Grant ;  "  if  you  don't  want  to  see  to  it,  I  will." 
He  dismounted,  untwisted  a  piece  of  telegraph  wire 
which  had  begun  to  cut  the  horse's  leg,  examined  it 
deliberately,  and  climbed  into  his  saddle.  "  Dent,"  said 
he,  "  when  you  've  got  a  horse  that  you  think  a  great 
deal  of,  you  should  never  take  any  chances  with  him. 


DARE.  29 

If  that  wire  had  been  left  there  for  a  little  time  longer 
he  would  have  gone  dead  lame,  and  would  perhaps  have 
been  ruined  for  life." 

Wellington  said  that  at  Waterloo  the  hottest  of  the 
battle  raged  round  a  farmhouse,  with  an  orchard  sur- 
rounded by  a  thick  hedge,  which  was  so  important  a 
point  in  the  British  position  that  orders  were  given  to 
hold  it  at  any  hazard  or  sacrifice.  At  last  the  powder  and 
ball  ran  short  and  the  hedges  took  fire,  surrounding  the 
orchard  with  a  wall  of  flame.  A  messenger  had  been 
sent  for  ammunition,  and  soon  two  loaded  wagons  came 
galloping  toward  the  farmhouse.  "  The  driver  of  the 
first  wagon,  with  the  reckless  daring  of  an  English  boy, 
spurred  his  struggling  and  terrified  horses  through  the 
burning  heap ;  but  the  flames  rose  fiercety  round,  and 
caught  the  powder,  which  exploded  in  an  instant,  send- 
ing wagon,  horses,  and  rider  in  fragments  into  the  air. 
For  an  instant  the  driver  of  the  second  wagon  paused, 
appalled  by  his  comrade's  fate  ;  the  next,  observing 
that  the  flames,  beaten  back  for  the  moment  by  the 
explosion,  afforded  him  one  desperate  chance,  sent  his 
horses  at  the  smouldering  breach  and,  amid  the  deaf- 
ening cheers  of  the  garrison,  landed  his  terrible  cargo 
safely  within.  Behind  him  the  flames  closed  up,  and 
raged  more  fiercely  than  ever." 

At  the  battle  of  Friedland  a  cannon-ball  came  over 
the  heads  of  the  French  soldiers,  and  a  young  soldier 
instinctively  dodged.  Napoleon  looked  at  him  and 
smilingly  said :  "  My  friend,  if  that  ball  were  destined 
for  you,  though  you  were  to  burrow  a  hundred  feet 
under  ground  it  would  be  sure  to  .find  you  there." 

When  the  mine  in  front  of  Petersburg  was  finished, 
the  fuse  was  lighted,  and  the  Union  troops  were  drawn 
up  ready  to  charge  the  enemy's  works  as  soon  as  the 
explosion  should  make  a  breach.  But  seconds,  min- 
utes, and  tens  of  minutes  passed,  without  a  sound  from 
the  mine,  and  the  suspense  became  painful.     Lieuten- 


30  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

ant  Doughty  and  Sergeant  Rees  volunteered  to  examine 
the  fuse.  Through  the  long  subterranean  galleries 
they  hurried  in  silence,  not  knowing  but  they  were 
advancing  to  a  horrible  death.  They  found  the  defect, 
fired  the  train  anew,  and  soon  a  terrible  upheaval  of 
earth  gave  the  signal  to  march  to  victory. 

At  the  battle  of  Copenhagen,  as  Nelson  walked  the 
deck  slippery  with  blood  and  covered  with  the  dead, 
he  said :  "  This  is  warm  work,  and  tliis  day  may  be  the 
last  to  any  of  us  in  a  moment.  But,  mark  me,  I  would 
not  be  elsewhere  for  thousands. '^  At  the  battle  of 
Trafalgar,  when  Nelson  was  shot  and  was  being  carried 
below,  he  covered  his  face,  that  those  fighting  might  not 
know  their  chief  had  fallen. 

In  a  skirmish  at  Salamanca,  while  the  enemy's  guns 
were  pouring  shot  into  his  regiment.  Sir  William 
Napier's  men  became  disobedient.  He  at  once  ordered 
a  halt,  and  flogged  four  of  the  ringleaders  under  fire. 
The  men  yielded  at  ODce,  and  then  marched  three  miles 
under  a  heavy  cannonade  as  coolly  as  if  it  were  a  re- 
view. 

Execute  your  resolutions  immediately.  Thoughts 
are  but  dreams  till  their  effects  be  tried.  Does  compe- 
tition trouble  you  ?  work  away  ;  what  is  your  competi- 
tor but  a  man  ?  Conquer  your  place  in  the  world,  for 
all  things  serve  a  brave  soul.  Combat  difficulty  man- 
fully ;  sustain  misfortune  bravely ;  endure  poverty 
nobly ;  encounter  disappointment  courageously.  The 
influence  of  the  brave  man  is  a  magnetism  which 
creates  an  epidemic  of  noble  zeal  in  all  about  him. 
Every  day  sends  to  the  grave  obscure  men,  who  have 
only  remained  in  obscurity  because  their  timidity  has 
prevented  them  from  making  a  first  effort ;  and  who,  if 
they  could  have  been  induced  to  begin,  would,  in  all 
probability,  have  gone  great  lengths  in  the  career  of 
usefulness  and  fame.  "No  great  deed  is  done,"  says 
George   Eliot,   "by   falterers  who  ask  for  certainty." 


DARE.  31 

The  brave,  cheerful  man  will  survive  his  blighted  hopes 
and  disappointments,  take  them  for  just  what  they  are, 
lessons  and  perhaps  blessings  in  disguise,  and  will 
march  boldly  and  cheerfully  forward  in  the  battle  of 
life.  Or,  if  necessary,  he  will  bear  his  ills  with  a 
patience  and  calm  endurance  deeper  than  ever  plummet 
sounded.     He  is  the  true  hero. 

Then  to  side  with  Truth  is  noble  when  we  share  her  wretched  crust, 
Ere  her  cause  bring  fame  and  profit,  and  't  is  prosperous  to  be  just: 
Then  it  is  the  brave  man  chooses,  while  the  coward  stands  aside. 
Doubting  in  his  abject  spirit,  till  his  Lord  is  crucitied. 

Lowell. 
Our  doubts  are  traitors, 
And  make  us  lose  the  good  we  oft  might  win, 
By  fearing  to  attempt. 

Shakespeare. 

After  the  great  inward  struggle  was  over,  and  he  had 
determined  to  remain  loyal  to  his  principles,  Thomas 
More  walked  cheerfully  to  the  block.  His  wife  called 
him  a  fool  for  staying  in  a  dark,  damp,  filthy  prison 
when  he  might  have  his  liberty  by  merely  renouncing 
his  doctrines,  as  some  of  the  bishops  had  done.  But 
he  preferred  death  to  dishonor.  His  daughter  showed 
the  power  of  love  to  drive  away  fear.  She  remained 
true  to  her  father  when  all  others,  even  her  mother,  had 
forsaken  him.  After  his  head  had  been  cut  off  and 
exhibited  on  a  pole  on  London  Bridge,  the  poor  girl 
begged  it  of  the  authorities,  and  requested  that  it  be 
buried  in  the  coffin  with  her.  Her  request  was  granted, 
for  her  death  occurred  soon. 

When  Sir  Walter  Kaleigh  came  to  the  scaffold  he 
was  very  faint,  and  began  his  spaech  to  the  crowd  by 
saying  that  during  the  last  two  days  he  had  been  visited 
by  two  ague  fits.  "If,  therefore,  you  perceive  any 
weakness  in  me,  I  beseech  you  ascribe  it  to  my  sick- 
ness rather  than  to  myself."  He  took  the  axe  and 
kissed  the  blade,  and  said  to  the  sheriff :  "  'T  is  a  sharp 
medicine,  but  a  sound  cure  for  all  diseases." 


32  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Don't  waste  time  dreaming  of  obstacles  you  may 
never  encounter,  or  in  crossing  bridges  you  have  not 
reached.  Don't  fool  with  a  nettle !  Grasp  with  firm- 
ness if  you  would  rob  it  of  its  sting.  To  half  will  and 
to  hang  forever  in  the  balance  is  to  lose  your  grip  on 
life. 

Abraham  Lincoln's  boyhood  was  one  long  struggle 
with  poverty,  with  little  education,  and  no  influential 
friends.  When  at  last  he  had  begun  the  practice  of 
law,  it  required  no  little  daring  to  cast  his  fortune  with 
the  weaker  side  in  politics,  and  thus  imperil  what  small 
reputation  he  had  gained.  Only  the  most  sublime 
moral  courage  could  have  sustained  him  as  President  to 
hold  his  ground  against  hostile  criticism  and  a  long 
train  of  disaster ;  to  issue  the  Emancipation  Proclama- 
tion ;  to  support  Grant  and  Stanton  against  the  clamor 
of  the  politicians  and  the  press ;  and  through  it  all  to 
do  the  right  as  God  gave  him  to  see  the  right. 

Lincoln  never  shrank  from  espousing  an  unpopular 
cause  when  he  believed  it  to  be  right.  At  the  time 
when  it  almost  cost  a  young  lawyer  his  bread  and 
butter  to  defend  the  fugitive  slave,  and  when  other 
lawyers  had  refused,  Lincoln  would  always  plead  the 
cause  of  the  unfortunate  whenever  an  opportunity  pre- 
sented. "Go  to  Lincoln,"  people  would  say,  when 
these  hounded  fugitives  were  seeking  protection ; 
"  he 's  not  afraid  of  any  cause,  if  it 's  right." 

As  Salmon  P.  Chase  left  the  court  room  after  making 
an  impassioned  plea  for  the  runaway  slave  girl  Matilda, 
a  man  looked  at  him  in  surprise  and  said  :  '■'  There  goes 
a  fine  young  fellow  who  has  just  ruined  himself."  But 
in  thus  ruining  himself  Chase  had  taken  the  first  im- 
portant step  in  a  career  in  which  he  became  Governor 
of  Ohio,  United  States  Senator  from  Ohio,  Secretary  of 
the  United  States  Treasury,  and  Chief  Justice  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court. 

At  the  trial  of  William  Penn  for  having  spoken  at  a 


DARE.  33 

Quaker  meeting,  the  recorder,  not  satisfied  with  the  first 
verdict,  said  to  the  jury  :  "  We  will  have  a  verdict  by 
the  help  of  God,  or  you  shall  starve  for  it."  "  You  are 
Englishmen,"  said  Penn  ;  "  mind  your  privileges,  give 
not  away  your  right."  At  last  the  jury,  after  two  days 
and  two  nights  without  food,  returned  a  verdict  of 
''Not  guilty."  The  recorder  fined  them  forty  marks 
apiece  for  their  independence. 

What  cared  Christ  for  the  jeers  of  the  crowd  ?  The 
palsied  hand  moved,  the  blind  saw,  the  leper  was  made 
whole,  the  dead  spake,  despite  the  ridicule  and  scoffs 
of  the  spectators. 

What  cared  Wendell  Phillips  for  rotten  eggs,  deri- 
sive scorn,  and  hisses  ?  In  him  "  at  last  the  scornful 
world  had  met  its  match."  Were  Beecher  and  Gough 
to  be  silenced  by  the  rude  English  mobs  that  came 
to  extinguish  them  ?  Xo  !  they  held  their  ground  and 
compelled  unwilling  thousands  to  hear  and  to  heed. 
Did  Anna  Dickinson  leave  the  platform  when  the 
pistol  bullets  of  the  Molly  Maguires  flew  about  her 
head  ?  She  silenced  those  pistols  by  her  courage  and 
her  arguments. 

What  the  world  wants  is  a  Knox,  who  dares  to 
preach  on  with  a  musket  leveled  at  his  head,  a  Garri- 
son, who  is  not  afraid  of  a  jail,  or  a  mob,  or  a  scaffold 
erected  in  front  of  his  door. 

"  Storms  may  howl  aroundthee, 
Foes  may  hunt  and  hound  thee: 
Shall  they  overpower  thee  ? 
Never,  never,  never." 

When  General  Butler  was  sent  with  nine  thousand 
men  to  quell  the  New  York  riots,  he  arrived  in  advance 
of  his  troops,  and  found  the  streets  thronged  with  an 
angry  mob,  which  had  already  hanged  more  than  one 
man  to  lamp-posts.  Without  waiting  for  his  men, 
Butler  went  to  the  place  where  the  crowd  was  most 
dense,  overturned  an  ash  barrel,  stood  upon  it,  and  be- 


84  AiicniTKcrs  OF  iwTh:, 

gan  :  •'  IVloi^atos  from  I'ivo  Toints,  tuMuls  from  holl, 
you  luivo  murdorod  your  superiors,"  aud  tho  blood- 
stained onnvd  quailed  before  the  eourageous  words  of  a 
siui^le  man  in  a  eity  whieh  Mayor  Fernando  Wood 
could  not  restrain  with  the  aid  of  polieo  and  militia. 

"Our  enen\ies  are  before  ns."  exelaimed  the  Spartans 
at  Thermopyhr.  •'  Aiul  we  are  l^etore  them."  was  the 
eool  reply  of  Leonidas.  ••  IVliver  your  arms,"  eame  tho 
message  from  Xerxes.  "Come  and  take  them,"  was 
the  answer  Leonidas  sent  baek.  A  Persian  soldier  said: 
"You  will  not  be  able  to  see  the  sun  tor  tlying  javelins 
and  arrows."  "Then  we  will  tight  in  the  shade,"  re- 
plied a  T.aeedemonian.  What  wonder  that  a  handful  of 
such  men  cheeked  the  march  of  the  greatest  host  that 
ever  trod  the  earth. 

"  It  is  impossible,"  said  a  statT  ofticer.  when  Xapoleon 
gave  directions  t\^r  a  daring  plan.  "Impossible!" 
thundered  the  great  commander,  "  hnpostsiblc  is  the  ad- 
jective of  fools  !  "  Napoleon  went  to  the  edge  of  his 
possibility. 

Grant  never  knew  when  lie  was  beaten.  AVhen  told 
that  he  was  surrounded  by  the  enemy  at  In^lmont,  he 
quietly  replied  :   "  Well,  then  we  must  cut  our  way  out." 

The  conrageouj?  man  is  an  example  to  the  intrepid. 
His  influence  is  magnetic.  He  creates  an  epidemic  of 
nobleness.     Men  follow  him,  even  to  the  death. 

The  spirit  of  courage  will  transform  the  whole  tem- 
per of  your  life.  "The  wise  and  active  comiuer  ditli- 
cnlties  by  daring  to  attempt  them.  Sloth  and  folly 
shiver  and  sicken  at  the  sight  of  trial  and  hazard,  and 
make  the  impossibility  they  fear." 

"The  hero,"  says  Kmerson,  "is  the  man  who  is  im- 
movably centred." 

Emin  Pasha,  the  explorer  of  Africa,  was  left  behind 
by  his  exploring  party  under  circumstances  that  were 
thought  certainly  fatal,  and  his  death  was  reported  with 
gi'eat  assurance.     Early  the  next  winter,  as  his  troop 


DARE.  35 

was  on  its  toilsomo  but  exciting  way  through  Central 
Africa,  it  cainr;  ii[)Oii  a  most  wrctf;hcd  siglit.  A  [jarty  of 
natives  had  been  ki(]riaj>ped  by  the  slave-hunters,  and 
dragged  in  cliains  thus  \:iv  toward  the  hxnd  of  bondage. 
But  sinall-pfjx  \\-aA  s<;t  in,  ;uid  tli(;  miserable  eonii>any 
had  been  abandoned  to  thf^ir  late.  Kniin  sent  his  men 
ahead,  and  stayed  b(*hind  in  this  camp  of  death  to  act 
as  physician  and  inirse.  How  many  lives  he  savfjfj  is 
not  knr)wn,  thougli  it  is  known  tli;i,t  lif,  nearly  lost  his 
own.  'J'lie  ;i,M(',  oT  chivali-y  is  not  r^onr;  by.  'I'his  is  as 
knightly  a  iUtcA  as  [Kjet  ever  chroniclerl. 

A  mousf;  that  dwfilt  near  the  abode  of  a  great  magi- 
cian was  k(;])t  in  such  constant  distress  by  its  fear  of 
a  cat,  that  tin;  magician,  taking  pity  on  it,  turned  it 
into  a  cat  itself.  Immediately  it  began  to  suffer  from 
its  ffjar  of  a  dog,  so  the  m;i,gieian  turned  it  into  a  dog. 
Th(;n  it  began  to  sufler  from  fear  of  a  tiger.  The  magi- 
cian therefoi-f!  turned  it  into  a  tiger.  Then  it  began  to 
fiuffcu-  from  f(!ar  of  hunters,  and  the  magician  said  in  dis- 
gust:  "  lie  a  mouse  again.  As  you  liave  only  the  heart 
of  a  mouse,  it  is  imi)ossible  to  help  you  by  giving  you 
the  body  of  a  nobler  animal.'^ 

Men  who  have  dared  have  moved  the  world,  often  be- 
fore reaching  the  prime  of  life.  It  is  astonishing  what 
daring  to  })egin  and  perseverance  have  enabled  even 
youths  to  achieve.  Alexander,  who  ascended  the  throne 
at  twenty,  had  conquered  the  known  world  before  dying 
at  thirty-three.  Julius  Ca;sar  captured  eight  hundred 
cities,  conquered  three  hundred  nations,  and  defeated 
three  million  men,  l)ec.'un(;  a  great  orator  and  one  of  the 
greatest  statesmen  known,  and  still  was  a  young  man. 
Washington  was  <'i[)f)ointed  adjutant-general  at  nineteen, 
was  sent  at  tw(uity-on(!  as  an  ambassador  to  treat  with  the 
French,  and  won  his  first  battle  as  a  colonel  at  twenty- 
two.  Lafayc^tte  was  made  general  of  the  whole  French 
army  at  twenty,  (jharlemagne  was  master  of  France 
and  Germany  at   thirty.     Conde  was  only  twenty -two 


36  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

when  he  conquered  at  Rocroi.  Galileo  was  but  eighteen 
when  he  saw  the  principle  of  the  pendulum  in  the 
swinging  lamp  in  the  cathedral  at  Pisa.  Peel  was  in 
Parliament  at  twenty-one.  Gladstone  was  in  Parlia- 
ment before  he  was  twenty-two,  and  at  twenty-four  he 
was  Lord  of  the  Treasury.  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning 
was  proficient  in  Greek  and  Latin  at  twelve  ;  De  Quincey 
at  eleven.  Eobert  Browning  wrote  at  eleven  poetry  of 
no  mean  order.  Cowley,  who  sleeps  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  published  a  volume  of  poems  at  fifteen.  N.  P. 
Willis  won  lasting  fame  as  a  poet  before  leaving  col- 
lege. Macaulay  was  a  celebrated  author  before  he  was 
twenty-three.  Luther  was  but  twenty-nine  when  he 
nailed  his  famous  thesis  to  the  door  of  the  bishop  and 
defied  the  pope.  Nelson  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  Brit- 
ish Navy  before  he  was  twenty.  He  was  but  forty- 
seven  when  he  received  his  death  wound  at  Trafalgar. 
Charles  the  Twelfth  was  only  nineteen  when  he  gained 
the  battle  of  Narva ;  at  thirty-six,  Cortez  was  the  con- 
queror of  Mexico ;  at  thirty-two,  Clive  had  established 
the  British  power  in  India.  Hannibal,  the  greatest  of 
military  commanders,  was  only  thirty  when,  at  Cannse, 
he  dealt  an  almost  annihilating  blow  at  the  republic  of 
Rome ;  and  Napoleon  was  only  twenty-seven  when,  on 
the  plains  of  Italy,  he  outgeneraled  and  defeated,  one 
after  another,  the  veteran  marshals  of  Austria. 

Equal  courage  and  resolution  are  often  shown  by  men 
who  have  passed  the  allotted  limit  of  life.  Victor  Hugo 
and  Wellington  were  both  in  their  prime  after  they  had 
reached  the  age  of  threescore  years  and  ten.  George 
Bancroft  wrote  some  of  his  best  historical  work  when 
he  was  eighty-five.  Gladstone  ruled  England  with  a 
strong  hand  at  eighty-four,  and  was  a  marvel  of  literary 
and  scholarly  ability. 

"  Not  every  vessel  that  sails  from  Tarshish  will  bring 
back  the  gold  of  Ophir.  But  shall  it  therefore  rot  in 
the  harbor  ?     No  !     Give  its  sails  to  the  wind  !  " 


DARE.  37 

Shakespeare  says :  "  He  is  not  worthy  of  the  honey- 
comb that  shuns  the  hive  because  the  bees  have  stings." 

"The  brave  man  is  not  he  who  feels  no  fear, 

For  that  were  stupid  and  irrational  ; 

But  he  whose  noble  soul  its  fear  subdues 

And  bravely  dares  the  danger  nature  shrinks  from." 

The  inscription  on  the  gates  of  Busyrane :  "  Be 
bold."  On  the  second  gate :  "  Be  bold,  be  bold,  and 
ever  more  be  bold ;  "  the  third  gate  :  "Be  not  too  bold." 

Many  a  bright  youth  has  accomplished  nothing  of 
worth  simply  because  he  did  not  dare  to  commence. 

Begin  !  Begin  ! !  Begin ! !  ! 

Whatever  people  may  think  of  you,  do  that  which  you  believe  to  be 
right.     Be  alike  indifferent  to  censure  or  praise.  — Pythagokas. 

Fear  makes  man  a  slave  to  others.  This  is  the  tyrant's  chain.  Anxiety 
is  a  form  of  cowardice  embittering  life.  —  Chanmimg. 

Courage  is  generosity  of  the  highest  order,  for  the  brave  are  prodigal  of 
the  most  precious  things.  Our  blood  is  nearer  and  dearer  to  us  than  our 
money,  and  our  life  than  our  estate.  Women  are  more  taken  with  cour- 
age than  with  generosity. —  Colton. 

Who  chooses  me  must  give  and  hazard  all  he  hath. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  Inscription  on  Leaden  Casket. 
I  dare  to  do  all  that  may  become  a  man  : 
Who  dares  do  more  is  none. 

Shakespeare. 
For  man's  great  actions  are  performed  in  minor  struggles.  There  are 
obstinate  and  unknown  braves  who  defend  themselves  inch  by  inch  in  the 
shadows  against  the  fatal  invasion  of  want  and  turpitude.  There  are 
noble  and  mysterious  triumphs  which  no  eye  sees,  no  renown  rewards, 
and  no  flourish  of  trumpets  salutes.  Life,  misfortune,  isolation,  abandon- 
ment, and  poverty  are  battlefields  which  have  their  heroes.  —  Victor 
Hugo. 

Who  waits  until  the  wind  shall  silent  keep, 

Who  never  finds  the  ready  hour  to  sow. 
Who  watcheth  clouds,  will  have  no  time  to  reap. 

Hklen  Hunt  Jackson. 
Quit  yourseU-es  like  men.  —  1  Samuel  iv.  9. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    WILL    AND    THE    WAY. 

"  The  'way'  will  be  found  by  a  resolute  will." 

*'  I  will  find  a  way  or  make  one." 

Nothing  is  impossible  to  the  man  who  can  will.  — Mirabeau. 

A  politician  weakly  and  amiably  in  the  right  is  no  match  for  a  politi- 
cian tenaciously  and  pugnaciously  in  the  wrong. —  E.  P.  Whipple. 

The  iron  will  of  one  stout  heart  shall  make  a  thousand  quail : 
A  feeble  dwarf,  dauntlessly  resolved,  will  turn  the  tide  of  battle, 
And  rally  to  a  nobler  strife  the  giants  that  had  fled. 

TUPPER. 

"  Man  alone  can  perform  the  impossible. 

They  can  who  think  they  can.     Character  is  a  perfectly  educated  will." 

The  education  of  the  will  is  the  object  of  our  existence.    For  the  resolute 
and  determined  there  is  time  and  opportunity.  —  Emekson. 

Invincible  determination,  and  a  right  nature,  are  the  levers  that  move 
the  world.— President  Porter. 

In  the  lexicon  of  youth  which  fate  reserves  for  a  bright  manhood  there 
is  no  such  word  as  fail.  — Bulwer. 

Perpetual  pushing  and  assurance  put  a  difficulty  out  of  countenance  and 
make  a  seeming  difficulty  give  way. —  Jeremy  Collier. 

When  a  firm  and  decisive  spirit  is  recognized,  it  is  curious  to  see  how 
the  space  clears  around  a  man  and  leaves  him  room  and  freedom. 

John  Foster. 

The  star  of  the  unconquered  will, 
He  rises  in  my  breast, 
Serene,  and  resolute  and  still, 
And  calm  and  self-possessed. 

Longfellow. 

"As  well  can  the  Prince  of  Orange  pluck  the  stars 
from  the  sky,  as  bring  the  ocean  to  the  wall  of  Leyden 
for  your  relief,"  was  the  derisive  shout  of  the  Span- 


WALTER    SCOTT 
"  The  Wizard  of  the  North." 

So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  our  dust, 

So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  '  Thou  must,' 

Tlie  youtli  replies,  '1  can.'  " 


THE    WILL   AND   THE    WAY.  39 

isli  soldiers  when  told  that  the  Dutch  fleet  would  raise 
that  terrible  four  months'  siege  of  1574.  But  from  the 
parched  lips  of  William,  tossing  on  his  bed  of  fever  at 
Rotterdam,  had  issued  the  command :  "  Break  down  the 
dikes :  give  Holland  hack  to  ocean : "  and  the  people 
had  replied :  "  Better  a  drowned  land  than  a  lost  land." 
They  began  to  demolish  dike  after  dike  of  the  strong 
lines,  ranged  one  within  another  for  fifteen  miles  to 
their  city  of  the  interior.  It  was  an  enormous  task ; 
the  garrison  was  starving;  and  the  besiegers  laughed 
in  scorn  at  the  slow  progress  of  the  puny  insects  who 
sought  to  rule  the  waves  of  the  sea.  But  ever,  as  of 
old,  heaven  aids  those  who  help  themselves.  On  the 
first  and  second  of  October  a  violent  equinoctial  gale 
rolled  the  ocean  inland,  and  swept  the  fleet  on  the  ris- 
ing waters  almost  to  the  camp  of  the  Spaniards.  The 
next  morning  the  garrison  sallied  out  to  attack  their 
enemies,  but  the  besiegers  had  fled  in  terror  under 
cover  of  the  darkness.  The  next  day  the  wind  changed, 
and  a  counter  tempest  brushed  the  water,  with  the 
fleet  upon  it,  from  the  surface  of  Holland.  The  outer 
dikes  were  replaced  at  once,  leaving  the  Korth  Sea 
within  its  old  bounds.  When  the  flowers  bloomed  the 
following  spring,  a  joyous  procession  marched  through 
the  streets  to  found  the  University  of  Leyden,  in  com- 
memoration of  the  wonderful  deliverance  of  the  city. 

At  a  dinner  party  given  in  1837,  at  the  residence  of 
Chancellor  Kent,  in  New  York  city,  some  of  the  most 
distinguished  men  in  the  country  were  invited,  and 
among  them  was  a  young  and  rather  melancholy  and 
reticent  Frenchman.  Professor  ^Morse  was  one  of  the 
guests,  and  during  the  evening  he  drew  the  attention 
of  Mr.  Gallatin,  then  a  prominent  statesman,  to  the 
stranger,  observing  that  his  forehead  indicated  great 
intellect.  "  Yes,"  replied  Mr.  Gallatin,  touching  his 
own  forehead  with  his  finger,  "  there  is  a  great  deal  in 
that  head  of  his  :  but  he  has  a  strange  fancy.     Can  you 


40  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

believe  it  ?  He  has  the  idea  that  he  will  one  day  be 
the  Emperor  of  France.  Can  you  conceive  anything 
more  absurd  ?  " 

It  did  seem  absurd,  for  this  reserved  Frenchman  was 
then  a  poor  adventurer,  an  exile  from  his  country,  with- 
out fortune  or  powerful  connections,  and  yet,  fourteen 
years  later,  his  idea  became  a  fact,  —  his  dream  of  be- 
coming iSTapoleon  III.  was  realized.  True,  before  he 
accomplished  his  purpose  there  were  long  dreary  years 
of  imprisonment,  exile,  disaster,  and  patient  labor  and 
hope,  but  he  gained  his  ambition  at  last.  He  was  not 
scrupulous  as  to  the  means  employed  to  accomplish  his 
ends,  yet  he  is  a  remarkable  example  of  what  pluck  and 
energy  can  do. 

When  it  was  proposed  to  unite  England  and  America 
by  steam.  Dr.  Lardner  delivered  a  lecture  before  the 
Eoyal  Society  "proving"  that  steamers  could  never 
cross  the  Atlantic,  because  they  could  not  carry  coal 
enough  to  produce  steam  during  the  whole  voyage. 
The  passage  of  the  steamship  Sirius,  which  crossed  in 
nineteen  days,  was  fatal  to  Lardner's  theory.  When  it 
was  proposed  to  build  a  vessel  of  iron,  many  persons 
said  :  "  Iron  sinks  —  only  wood  can  float : "  but  experi- 
ments proved  that  the  miracle  of  the  prophet  in  mak- 
ing iron  "  swim  "  could  be  repeated,  and  now  not  only 
ships  of  war,  but  merchant  vessels,  are  built  of  iron  or 
steel.     A  will  found  a  way  to  make  iron  float. 

Mr.  Ingram,  publisher  of  the  "London  Illustrated 
News,"  who  lost  his  life  on  Lake  Michigan,  walked  ten 
miles  to  deliver  a  single  paper  rather  than  disappoint  a 
customer,  when  he  began  life  as  a  newsdealer  at  Not- 
tingham, England.  Does  any  one  wonder  that  such  a 
youth  succeeded  ?  Once  he  rose  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  and  walked  to  London  to  get  some  papers  be- 
cause there  was  no  post  to  bring  them.  He  determined 
that  his  customers  should  not  be  disappointed.  This  is 
the  kind  of  will  that  finds  a  way. 


THE    WILL  AND   THE    WAY.  41 

There  is  scarcely  anytMng  in  all  biography  grander 
than  the  saying  of  young  Henry  Fawcett,  Gladstone's 
last  Postmaster-General,  to  his  grief-stricken  father, 
who  had  put  out  both  his  eyes  by  bird-shot  during  a 
game  hunt :  "  Never  mind,  father,  blindness  shall  not 
interfere  with  my  success  in  life."  One  of  the  most 
pathetic  sights  in  London  streets,  long  afterward,  was 
Henry  Fawcett,  M.  P.,  led  everywhere  by  a  faithful 
daughter,  who  acted  as  amanuensis  as  well  as  guide  to 
her  plucky  father.  Think  of  a  young  man,  scarcely 
on  the  threshold  of  active  life,  suddenly  losing  the  sight 
of  both  eyes  and  yet,  by  mere  pluck  and  almost  incom- 
prehensible tenacity  of  purpose,  lifting  himself  iiito 
eminence,  in  any  direction,  to  say  nothing  of  becoming 
one  of  the  foremost  men  in  a  country  noted  for  its 
great  men.  Most  youth  would  have  succumbed  to  such 
a  misfortune,  and  would  never  have  been  heard  from 
again.  But  fortunately  for  the  world,  there  are  yet 
left  many  Fawcetts,  many  Prescotts,  Parkmans,  Cava- 
naghs. 

The  courageous  daughter  who  was  eyes  to  her  father 
was  herself  a  marvelous  example  of  pluck  and  deter- 
mination. For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Oxford 
College,  which  reaches  back  centuries,  she  succeeded  in 
winning  the  post  which  had  only  been  gained  before 
by  great  men,  such  as  Gladstone,  —  the  post  of  senior 
wrangler.  This  achievement  had  had  no  parallel  in 
history  up  to  that  date,  and  attracted  the  attention  of 
the  whole  civilized  world.  Not  only  had  no  woman 
ever  held  this  position  before,  but  with  few  exceptions 
it  had  only  been  held  by  men  who  in  after  life  became 
highly  distinguished.  Who  can  deny  that  where  there 
is  a  will,  as  a  rule,  there  's  a  way  ? 

When  Grant  was  a  boy  he  could  not  find  "  can't  "  in 
the  dictionary.  It  is  the  men  who  have  no  "  can't "  in 
their  dictionaries  that  make  things  move. 

"  Circumstances,"  says  Milton,  "  have  rarely  favored 


42  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

famous  men.  They  have  fought  their  way  to  triumph 
through  all  sorts  of  opposing  obstacles." 

The  true  way  to  conquer  circumstances  is  to  be  a 
greater  circumstance  yourself. 

Yet,  while  desiring  to  impress  in  the  most  forcible 
manner  possible  the  fact  that  will-power  is  necessary  to 
success,  and  that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  greater 
the  will-power,  the  grander  and  more  complete  the  suc- 
cess, we  cannot  indorse  the  preposterous  theory  that 
there  is  nothing  in  circumstances  or  environments,  or 
that  any  man,  simply  because  he  has  an  indomitable 
will,  may  become  a  Bonaparte,  a  Pitt,  a  Webster,  a 
Beecher,  a  Lincoln.  We  must  temper  determination 
with  discretion,  and  support  it  with  knowledge  and 
common  sense,  or  it  will  only  lead  us  to  run  our  heads 
against  posts.  We  must  not  expect  to  overcome  a  stub- 
born fact  by  a  stubborn  will.  We  merely  have  the 
right  to  assume  that  we  can  do  anything  within  the 
limit  of  our  utmost  faculty,  strength,  and  endurance. 
Obstacles  permanently  insurmountable  bar  our  progress 
in  some  directions,  but  in  any  direction  we  may  reason- 
ably hope  and  attempt  to  go,  we  shall  find  that  the  ob- 
stacles, as  a  rule,  are  either  not  insurmountable  or  else 
not  permanent.  The  strong-willed,  intelligent,  persis- 
tent man  will  find  or  make  a  way  where,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  a  way  can  be  found  or  made. 

Every  schoolboy  knows  that  circumstances  do  give 
clients  to  lawyers  and  patients  to  physicians ;  place  or- 
dinary clergymen  in  extraordinary  pulpits ;  place  sons 
of  the  rich  at  the  head  of  immense  corporations  and 
large  houses,  when  they  have  very  ordinary  ability  and 
scarcely  any  experience,  while  poor  young  men  with  ex- 
traordinary abilities,  good  education,  good  character, 
and  large  experience,  often  have  to  fight  their  way  for 
years  to  obtain  even  very  ordinary  situations.  Every 
one  knows  that  there  are  thousands  of  young  men,  both 
in  the  city  and  in  the  country,  of  superior  ability,  who 


THE    WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  43 

seem  to  be  compelled  by  circumstances  to  remain  in 
very  ordinary  positions  for  small  pay,  when  others  about 
them  are  raised  by  money  or  family  influence  into  de- 
sirable places.  In  other  words,  we  all  know  that  the 
best  men  do  not  always  get  the  best  places  :  circum- 
stances do  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  our  position, 
our  salaries,  and  our  station  in  life. 

Many  young  men  who  are  nature's  noblemen,  who  are 
natural  leaders,  are  working  under  superintendents, 
foremen,  and  managers  infinitely  their  inferiors,  but 
whom  circumstances  have  placed  above  them  and  will 
keep  there,  unless  some  emergency  makes  merit  indis- 
pensable.    No,  the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift. 

Every  one  knows  that  there  is  not  always  a  way 
where  there  is  a  will ;  that  labor  does  not  always  con- 
quer all  things ;  that  there  are  things  impossible  even 
to  him  that  wills,  however  strongly ;  that  one  cannot  al- 
ways make  anything  of  himself  he  chooses ;  that  there 
are  limitations  in  our  very  natures  which  no  amount  of 
will-power  or  industry  can  overcome  ;  that  no  amount 
of  sun-staring  can  ever  make  an  eagle  out  of  a  crow. 

The  simple  truth  is  that  a  will  strong  enough  to  keep 
a  man  continually  striving  for  things  not  wholly  beyond 
his  powers  will  carry  him  in  time  very  far  toward  his 
chosen  goal. 

The  greatest  thing  a  man  can  do  in  this  world  is  to 
make  the  most  possible  out  of  the  stuff  that  has  been 
given  to  him.     This  is  success,  and  there  is  no  other. 

While  it  is  true  that  our  circumstances  or  environ- 
ments do  affect  us,  in  most  things  they  do  not  pre- 
vent our  growth.  The  corn  that  is  now  ripe,  whence 
comes  it,  and  what  is  it  ?  Is  it  not  large  or  small, 
stunted  wild  maize  or  well-developed  ears,  according  to 
the  conditions  under  which  it  has  grown  ?  Yet  its  en- 
vironments cannot  make  wheat  of  it.  Nor  can  our  cir- 
cumstances alter  our  nature.  It  is  part  of  our  nature, 
and  wholly  within  our  power,  greatly  to  change  and  to 


44  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

take  advantage  of  our  circumstances,  so  that,  unlike  the 
corn,  we  can  rise  much  superior  to  our  natural  surround- 
ings simply  because  we  can  thus  vary  and  improve  the 
surroundings.  In  other  words,  man  can  usually  build 
the  very  road  on  which  he  is  to  run  his  race. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  what  some  one  else  can  do  or 
become,  which  every  youth  should  ask  himself,  but 
what  can  I  do  ?  How  can  I  develop  myself  into  the 
grandest  possible  manhood  ? 

So  far,  then,  from  the  power  of  circumstances  being 
a  hindrance  to  men  in  trying  to  build  for  themselves 
an  imperial  highway  to  fortune,  these  circumstances 
constitute  the  very  quarry  out  of  which  they  are  to  get 
paving-stones  for  the  road. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  will-power  cannot  perform 
miracles,  yet  that  it  is  almost  omnipotent,  that  it  can 
perform  wonders,  all  history  goes  to  prove.  As  Shake- 
speare says : — 

"Men  at  some  time  are  masters  of  their  fates  : 
The  fault,  dear  Brutus,  is  not  in  our  stars, 
But  in  ourselves,  that  we  are  underlings." 

"There  is  nobody,"  says  a  Eoman  Cardinal,  "whom 
Fortune  does  not  visit  once  in  his  life :  but  when  she 
finds  he  is  not  ready  to  receive  her,  she  goes  in  at  the 
door,  and  out  through  the  window."  Opportunity  is 
coy.  The  careless,  the  slow,  the  unobservant,  the  lazy 
fail  to  see  it,  or  clutch  at  it  when  it  has  gone.  The 
sharp  fellows  detect  it  instantly,  and  catch  it  when  on 
the  wing. 

Show  me  a  man  who  is,  according  to  popular  preju- 
dice, a  victim  of  bad  luck,  and  I  will  show  you  one  who 
has  some  unfortunate  crooked  twist  of  temperament 
that  invites  disaster.  He  is  ill-tempered,  or  conceited, 
or  trifling ;  lacks  character,  enthusiasm,  or  some  other 
requisite  for  success. 

Disraeli  says  that  man  is  not  the  creature  of  circum- 
stances, but  that  circumstances  are  the  creatures  of  men. 


THE    WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  45 

What  has  chance  ever  done  in  the  world  ?  Has  it 
built  any  cities  ?  Has  it  invented  any  telephones,  any 
telegraphs  ?  Has  it  built  any  steamships,  established 
any  universities,  any  asylums,  any  hospitals  ?  Was 
there  any  chance  in  Caesar's  crossing  the  Rubicon  ? 
What  had  chance  to  do  with  Napoleon's  career,  with 
Wellington's,  or  Grant's,  or  Von  Moltke's  ?  Every  bat- 
tle was  won  before  it  was  begun.  What  had  luck  to  do 
with  Thermopylae,  Trafalgar,  Gettysburg?  Our  suc- 
cesses we  ascribe  to  ourselves ;  our  failures  to  destiny. 

Man  is  not  a  helpless  atom  in  this  vast  creation,  with 
a  fixed  position,  and  naught  to  do  but  obey  his  own 
polarity. 

Believe  in  the  power  of  will,  which  annihilates  the 
sickly,  sentimental  doctrine  of  fatalism,  —  you  must 
but  can't,  you  ought  but  it  is  impossible. 

Give  me  the  man 

"  Who  breaks  his  birth's  invidious  bar, 
And  grasps  the  skirts  of  happy  chance, 
And  breasts  the  blows  of  circumstance, 
And  grapples  with  his  evil  star." 

It  is  only  the  ignorant  and  superficial  who  believe  in 
fate.  "  The  first  step  into  thought  lifts  this  mountain 
of  necessity."  "  Fate  is  unpenetrated  causes."  "  They 
may  well  fear  fate  who  have  any  infirmity  of  habit  or 
aim :  but  he  who  rests  on  what  he  is  has  a  destiny 
beyond  destiny,  and  can  make  mouths  at  fortune." 

The  indomitable  will,  the  inflexible  purpose,  will  find 
a  way  or  make  one.  There  is  always  room  for  a  man  of 
force. 

"  He  who  has  a  firm  will,"  says  .Goethe,  "  moulds  the 
world  to  himself.'^  "People  do  not  lack  strength,"  says 
Victor  Hugo,  "they  lack  will." 

"  He  who  resolves  upon  any  great  end,  by  that  very 
resolution  has  scaled  the  great  barriers  to  it,  and  he 
who  seizes  the  grand  idea  of  self-cultivation,  and  sol- 
emnly resolves  upon  it,  will  find  that  idea,  that  resolu- 


46  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

tion,  burning  like  fire  within  him,  and  ever  putting  hira 
upon  his  own  improvement.  He  will  find  it  removing 
difficulties,  searching  out,  or  making  means ;  giving 
courage  for  despondency,  and  strength  for  weakness." 

Nearly  all  great  men,  those  who  have  towered  high 
above  their  fellows,  have  been  remarkable  above  all 
things  else  for  their  energy  of  will.  Of  Julius  Caesar  it 
was  said  by  a  contemporary  that  it  was  his  activity 
and  giant  determination,  rather  than  his  military  skill, 
that  won  his  victories.  The  youth  who  starts  out  in 
life  determined  to  make  the  most  of  his  eyes  and  let 
nothing  escape  him  which  he  can  possibly  use  for  his 
own  advancement ;  who  keeps  his  ears  open  for  every 
sound  that  can  help  him  on  his  way,  who  keeps  his 
hands  open  that  he  may  clutch  every  opportunity,  who 
is  ever  on  the  alert  for  everything  which  can  help  him 
to  get  on  in  the  world,  who  seizes  every  experience  in 
life  and  grinds  it  up  into  paint  for  his  great  life's  pic- 
ture, who  keeps  his  heart  open  that  he  may  catch  every 
noble  impulse,  and  everything  which  may  inspire  him, 
—  that  youth  will  be  sure  to  make  his  life  successful ; 
there  are  no  "  if s  "  or  "  ands  "  about  it.  If  he  has  his 
health,  nothing  can  keep  him  from  final  success. 

No  tyranny  of  circumstances  can  permanently  im- 
prison a  determined  will. 

The  world  always  stands  aside  for  the  determined 
man.  Will  makes  a  way,  even  through  seeming  impos- 
sibilities. "  It  is  the  half  a  neck  nearer  that  shows  the 
blood  and  wins  the  race :  the  one  march  more  that  wins 
the  campaign  :  the  five  minutes  more  of  unyielding  cour- 
age that  wins  the  fight."  Again  and  again  had  the  irre- 
pressible Carter  Harrison  been  consigned  to  oblivion  by 
the  educated  and  moral  element  of  Chicago.  Nothing 
could  keep  him  down.  He  was  invincible.  A  son  of 
Chicago,  he  had  partaken  of  that  nineteenth  century 
miracle,  that  phoenix-like  nature  of  the  city  which, 
though   she  was  burned,  caused   her  to  rise  from  her 


THE    WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  47 

ashes  and  become  a  greater  and  a  grander  Chicago,  a 
wonder  of  the  world.  Carter  Harrison  would  not  down. 
He  entered  the  Democratic  Convention  and,  with  an 
audacity  rarely  equaled,  in  spite  of  their  protest,  boldly 
declared  himself  their  candidate.  Every  newspaper  in 
Chicago,  save  the  "  Times,"  his  own  paper,  bitterly  op- 
posed his  election :  but  notwithstanding  all  opposition, 
he  was  elected  by  twenty  thousand  majority.  The  aris- 
tocrats hated  him,  the  moral  element  feared  him,  but 
the  poor  people  believed  in  him  :  he  pandered  to  them, 
flattered  them,  till  they  elected  him.  While  we  would 
not  by  any  means  hold  Carter  Harrison  up  to  youth  as 
a  model,  yet  there  is  a  great  lesson  in  his  will-power 
and  wonderful  tenacity  of  purpose. 

"  The  general  of  a  large  army  may  be  defeated,"  said 
Confucius,  "  but  you  cannot  defeat  the  determined  mind 
of  a  peasant." 

The  poor,  deaf  pauper,  Kitto,  who  made  shoes  in  the 
almshouse,  and  who  became  the  greatest  of  Biblical 
scholars,  wrote  in  his  journal,  on  the  threshold  of  man- 
hood :  "  I  am  not  myself  a  believer  in  impossibilities  :  I 
think  that  all  the  fine  stories  about  natural  ability,  etc., 
are  mere  rigmarole,  and  that  every  man  may,  accord- 
ing to  his  opportunities  and  industry,  render  himself 
almost  anything  he  wishes  to  become." 

Years  ago,  a  young  mechanic  took  a  bath  in  the  river 
Clyde.  While  swimming  from  shore  to  shore  he  dis- 
cerned a  beautiful  bank,  uncultivated,  and  he  then 
and  there  resolved  to  be  the  owner  of  it,  and  to  adorn 
it,  and  to  build  upon  it  the  finest  mansion  in  all  the 
borough,  and  name  it  in  honor  of  the  maiden  to  whom 
he  was  espoused.  "  Last  summer,"  says  a  well-known 
American,  "  I  had  the  pleasure  of  dining  in  that  princely 
mansion,  and  receiving  this  fact  from  the  lips  of  the  great 
shipbuilder  of  the  Clyde."  That  one  purpose  was  made 
the  ruling  passion  of  his  life,  and  all  the  energies  of  his 
soul  were  put  in  requisition  for  its  accomplishment. 


48  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Lincoln  is  probably  the  most  remarkable  example  on 
the  pages  of  history,  showing  the  possibilities  of  our 
country.  From  the  poverty  in  which  he  was  born, 
through  the  rowdyism  of  a  frontier  town,  the  rudeness 
of  frontier  society,  the  discouragement  of  early  bank- 
ruptcy, and  the  fluctuations  of  popular  politics,  he  rose 
to  the  championship  of  union  and  freedom. 

Lincoln's  will  made  his  way.  When  his  friends  nom- 
inated him  as  a  candidate  for  the  legislature,  his 
enemies  made  fun  of  him.  When  making  his  campaign 
speeches  he  wore  a  mixed  jean  coat  so  short  that  he 
could  not  sit  down  on  it,  flax  and  tow-linen  trousers, 
straw  hat,  and  pot-metal  boots.  He  had  nothing  in  the 
world  but  character  and  friends. 

W^heu  his  friends  suggested  law  to  him,  he  laughed  at 
the  idea  of  his  being  a  lawyer.  He  said  he  hadn't 
brains  enough.  He  read  law  barefoot  under  the  trees, 
his  neighbors  said,  and  he  sometimes  slept  on  the 
counter  in  the  store  where  he  worked.  He  had  to 
borrow  money  to  buy  a  suit  of  clothes  to  make  a 
respectable  appearance  in  the  legislature,  and  walked 
to  take  his  seat  at  Vandalia,  —  one  hundred  miles. 
While  he  was  in  the  legislature,  John  F.  Stuart,  an 
eminent  lawyer  of  Springfield,  told  him  how  Clay 
had  even  inferior  chances  to  his,  had  got  all  of  the 
education  he  had  in  a  log  schoolhouse  without  windows 
or  doors  ;  and  finally  induced  Lincoln  to  study  law. 

See  Thurlow  Weed,  defying  poverty  and  wading 
through  the  snow  two  miles,  with  rags  for  shoes,  to 
borrow  a  book  to  read  before  the  sap-bush  fire.  See 
Locke,  living  on  bread  and  water  in  a  Dutch  garret. 
See  Heyne,  sleeping  many  a  night  on  a  barn  floor  with 
only  a  book  for  his  pillow.  See  Samuel  Drew,  tighten- 
ing his  apron  strings  "  in  lieu  of  a  dinner."  See  young 
Lord  Eldon,  before  daylight  copying  Coke  on  Littleton 
over  and  over  again.  History  is  full  of  such  examples. 
He  who  will   pay  the  price  for  victory  needs   never 


THE   WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  49 

fear  final  defeat.     Why  were  the  Roman  legionaries 
victorious  ? 

"  For  Romans,  in  Rome's  quarrels, 
Spared  neither  land  nor  gold, 
Nor  son,  nor  wife,  nor  limb  nor  life, 
In  the  brave  days  of  old." 

Powell  Buxton,  writing  to  one  of  his  sons,  says  :  "  I 
am  sure  that  a  young  man  may  be  very  much  what  lie 
pleases." 

Dr.  Mathews  has  well  said  that  "there  is  hardly  a 
word  in  the  whole  human  vocabulary  which  is  more 
cruelly  abused  than  the  word  '  luck.'  To  all  the  faults 
and  failures  of  men,  their  positive  sins  and  their  less 
culpable  shortcomings,  it  is  made  to  stand  a  godfather 
and  sponsor.  Go  talk  with  the  bankrupt  man  of  busi- 
ness,  who  has  swamped  his  fortune  by  wild  speculation, 
extravagance  of  living,  or  lack  of  energy,  and  you  will 
find  that  he  vindicates  his  wonderful  self-love  by  con- 
founding the  steps  which  he  took  indiscreetly  with 
those  to  which  he  was  forced  by  '  circumstances,'  and 
complacently  regarding  himself  as  the  victim  of  ill-luck. 
Go  visit  the  incarcerated  criminal,  who  has  imbued  his 
hands  in  the  blood  of  his  fellow-man,  or  Avho  is  guilty 
of  less  heinous  crimes,  and  you  will  find  that,  joining 
the  temptations  which  were  easy  to  avoid  with  those 
which  were  comparatively  irresistible,  he  has  hurriedly 
patched  up  a  treaty  with  conscience,  and  stifles  its 
compunctious  visitings  by  persuading  himself  that, 
from  first  to  last,  he  was  the  victim  of  circumstances. 
Go  talk  with  the  mediocre  in  talents  and  attainments, 
the  weak-spirited  man  who,  from-^  lack  of  energy  and 
application,  has  made  but  little  headway  in  the  world, 
being  outstripped  in  the  race  of  life  by  those  whom  he 
had  despised  as  his  inferiors,  and  you  will  find  that  he, 
too,  acknowledges  the  all-potent  power  of  luck,  and 
soothes  his  humbled  pride  by  deeming  himself  the  victim 
of  ill-fortune.     In  short,  from   the  most  venial  offense 


50  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

to  the  most  flagrant,  there  is  hardly  any  wrong  act  or 
neglect  to  which  this  too  fatally  convenient  word  is  not 
applied  as  a  palliation." 

Paris  was  in  the  hands  of  a  mob,  the  authorities  were 
panic-stricken,  for  they  did  not  dare  to  trust  their  un- 
derlings. In  came  a  man  who  said,  "  I  know  a  young 
officer  who  has  the  courage  and  ability  to  quell  this 
mob."  "  Send  for  him  ;  send  for  him  ;  send  for  him," 
said  they.  Napoleon  was  sent  for,  came,  subjugated 
the  mob,  subjugated  the  authorities,  ruled  France,  then 
conquered  Europe. 

What  a  lesson  is  Napoleon's  life  for  the  sickly,  wishy- 
washy,  dwarfed,  sentimental  "  dudes,"  hanging  about 
our  cities,  country,  and  universities,  complaining  of 
their  hard  lot,  dreaming  of  success,  and  wondering  why 
they  are  left  in  the  rear  in  the  great  race  of  life. 

Success  in  life  is  dependent  largely  upon  the  will- 
power, and  whatever  weakens  or  impairs  it  diminishes 
success.  The  will  can  be  educated.  That  which  most 
easily  becomes  a  habit  in  us  is  the  will.  Learn,  then,  to 
will  decisively  and  strongly  ;  thus  fix  your  floating  life, 
and  leave  it  no  longer  to  be  carried  hither  and  thither, 
like  a  withered  leaf,  by  every  wind  that  blows.  ''  It  is 
not  talent  that  men  lack,  it  is  the  will  to  labor ;  it  is 
the  purpose,  not  the  power  to  produce." 

It  was  this  insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge  which 
held  to  his  task,  through  poverty  and  discouragement, 
John  Leyden,  a  Scotch  shepherd's  son.  Barefoot  and 
alone,  he  walked  six  or  eight  miles  daily  to  learn  to 
read,  which  was  all  the  schooling  he  had.  His  desire 
for  an  education  defied  the  extremest  poverty,  and  no 
obstacle  could  turn  him  from  his  purpose.  He  was  rich 
when  he  discovered  a  little  bookstore,  and  his  thirsty 
soul  would  drink  in  the  precious  treasures  from  its 
priceless  volumes  for  hours,  perfectly  oblivious  of  the 
scanty  meal  of  bread  and  water  which  awaited  him  at 
his  lowly  lodging.     Nothing  could  discourage  him  from 


THE   WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  51 

trying  to  improve  himself  by  study.  It  seemed  to  him 
that  an  opportunity  to  get  at  books  and  lectures  was  all 
that  any  man  could  need.  Before  he  was  nineteen,  this 
poor  shepherd  boy  with  no  chance  had  astonished  the 
professors  of  Edinburgh  by  his  knowledge  of  Greek  and 
Latin. 

Hearing  that  a  surgeon's  assistant  in  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice was  wanted,  although  he  knew  nothing  whatever 
of  medicine,  he  determined  to  apply  for  it.  There  were 
only  six  months  before  the  place  was  to  be  filled,  but 
nothing  could  daunt  him,  and  in  six  months'  time  he 
actually  took  his  degree  with  honor.  Waiter  Scott, 
who  thought  this  one  of  the  most  remarkable  illustra- 
tions of  perseverance,  helped  to  fit  him  out,  and  he  sailed 
for  India. 

Webster  was  very  poor  even  after  he  entered  Dart- 
mouth College.  A  friend  sent  him  a  recipe  for  greas- 
ing his  boots.  Webster  wrote  and  thanked  him,  and 
added  :  "But  my  boots  need  other  doctoring,  for  they 
not  only  admit  water,  but  even  peas  and  gravel-stones." 
Yet  he  became  one  of  the  greatest  men  in  the  world. 
Sydney  Smith  said  :  "  Webster  was  a  living  lie,  because 
no  man  on  earth  could  be  as  great  as  he  looked." 
Carlyle  said  of  him  :  "  One  would  incline  at  sight  to 
back  him  against  the  world." 

What  seemed  to  be  luck  followed  Stephen  Girard  all 
his  life.  No  matter  what  he  did,  it  always  seemed  to 
others  to  turn  to  his  account.  His  coming  to  Philadel- 
phia seemed  a  lucky  accident.  A  sloop  was  seen  one 
morning  off  the  mouth  of  Delaware  Bay  floating  the 
flag  of  France  and  a  signal  of  distress.  Young  Girard 
was  captain  of  this  sloop,  and  was  on  his  way  to  a 
Canadian  port  with  freight  from  j^ew  Orleans.  An 
American  skipper,  seeing  his  distress,  went  to  his  aid, 
but  told  him  the  American  war  had  broken  out,  and 
that  the  British  cruisers  were  all  along  the  American 
coast,  and  would  seize  his  vessel.     He  told  him  his  only 


52  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

chance  was  to  make  a  push  for  Philadeli)hia.  Giraid 
did  not  know  the  way,  and  had  no  money.  The  skipper 
loaned  him  five  dollars  to  get  the  service  of  a  pilot  who 
demanded  his  money  in  advance. 

His  sloop  passed  into  the  Delaware  just  in  time  to 
avoid  capture  by  a  British  war  vessel.  He  sold  the 
sloop  and  cargo  in  Philadelphia,  and  began  business  on 
the  capital.  Being  a  foreigner,  unable  to  speak  English, 
short,  stout,  and  with  a  repulsive  face,  blind  in  one  eye, 
it  was  hard  for  him  to  get  a  start.  But  he  was  not  the 
man  to  give  up.  He  had  begun  as  a  cabin  boy  at 
thirteen,  and  for  nine  years  sailed  between  Bordeaux 
and  the  French  West  Indies.  He  improved  every 
leisure  minute  at  sea,  mastering  the  art  of  navigation. 

At  the  age  of  eight  he  first  discovered  that  he  was 
blind  in  one  eye.  His  father,  evidently  thinking  that 
he  would  never  amount  to  anything,  would  not  help 
him  to  an  education  beyond  that  of  mere  reading  and 
writing,  but  sent  his  younger  brothers  to  college.  The 
discovery  of  his  blindness,  the  neglect  of  his  father,  and 
the  chagrin  of  his  brothers'  advancement,  soured  his 
whole  life. 

When  he  began  business  for  himself  in  Philadelphia, 
there  seemed  to  be  nothing  he  would  not  do  for  money. 
He  bought  and  sold  anything,  from  groceries  to  old 
junk.  He  bottled  wine  and  cider,  from  which  he  made 
a  good  profit.  Everything  he  touched  prospered.  In 
1780,  he  resumed  the  New  Orleans  and  St.  Domingo 
trade,  in  which  he  had  been  engaged  at  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Kevolution.  Here  great  success  again 
attended  him.  He  had  two  vessels  lying  in  one  of  the 
St.  Domingo  ports  when  the  great  insurrection  on  that 
island  broke  out.  A  number  of  the  rich  planters  fled 
to  his  vessels  with  their  valuables,  which  they  left  for 
safe  keeping  while  they  went  back  to  their  estates  to 
secure  more.  They  probably  fell  victims  to  the  cruel 
negroes,  for  they  never  returned,  and  Grirard  was  the 


THE    WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  53 

lucky  possessor  of  $50,000  which  the  goods  brought 
in  Philadephia. 

Everybody,  especially  his  jealous  brother  merchants, 
attributed  his  great  success  to  his  luck.  While  un- 
doubtedly he  was  fortunate  in  happening  to  be  at  the 
right  place  at  the  right  time,  yet  he  was  precision, 
method,  accuracy,  energy  itself.  He  left  nothing  to 
chance.  His  plans  and  schemes  were  worked  out  with 
mathematical  care.  His  letters,  written  to  his  captains 
in  foreign  ports,  laying  out  their  routes  and  giving  de- 
tailed instruction  from  which  they  were  never  allowed 
to  deviate  under  any  circumstances,  are  models  of  fore- 
sight and  systematic  planning.  He  never  left  anything 
of  importance  to  others.  He  was  rigidly  accurate  in 
his  instructions,  and  would  not  allow  the  slightest  de- 
parture from  them.  He  used  to  say  that  while  his 
captains  might  save  him  money  by  deviating  from 
instructions  once,  yet  they  would  cause  loss  in  ninety- 
nine  other  cases.  Once,  when  a  captain  returned  and 
had  saved  him  several  thousand  dollars  by  buying  his 
cargo  of  cheese  in  another  port  than  that  in  which  he 
had  been  instructed  to  buy,  Girard  was  so  enraged,  al- 
though he  was  several  thousand  dollars  richer,  that  he 
discharged  the  captain  on  the  spot,  notwithstanding  the 
latter  had  been  faithful  in  his  service  for  many  years, 
and  thought  he  was  saving  his  employer  a  great  deal  of 
money  by  deviating  from  his  instructions. 

Girard  lived  in  a  dingy  little  house,  poorer  than  that 
occupied  by  many  of  his  employees.  He  married  a 
servant  girl  of  great  beauty,  but  she  proved  totally 
unfitted  for  him,  and  died  at  last  In  the  insane  asylum. 

Girard  never  lost  a  ship,  and  many  times  what  brought 
financial  ruin  to  many  others,  as  the  War  of  1812,  only 
increased  his  wealth.  What  seemed  luck  with  him  was 
only  good  judgment  and  promptness  in  seizing  opportu- 
nities, and  the  greatest  care  and  zeal  in  improving  them 
to  their  utmost  possibilities. 


54  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Luck  is  not  God's  price  for  success :  that  is  alto- 
gether too  cheap,  nor  does  he  dicker  with  men. 

The  mathematician  tells  you  that  if  you  throw  the 
dice,  there  are  thirty  chances  to  one  against  your  turn- 
ing up  a  particular  number,  and  a  hundred  to  one 
against  your  repeating  the  same  throw  three  times  in 
succession :  and  so  on  in  an  augmenting  ratio.  What 
is  luck  ?  Is  it,  as  has  been  suggested,  a  blind  man's 
buff  among  the  laws  ?  a  ruse  among  the  elements  ?  a 
trick  of  Dame  Nature  ?  Has  any  scholar  defined  luck  ? 
any  philosopher  explained  its  nature  ?  any  chemist 
shown  its  composition  ?  Is  luck  that  strange,  nonde- 
script fairy,  that  does  all  things  among  men  that  they 
cannot  account  for  ?  If  so,  why  does  not  luck  make 
a  fool  speak  words  of  wisdom ;  an  ignoramus  utter  lec- 
tures on  philosophy  ? 

Many  a  young  man  who  has  read  the  story  of  John 
Wanamaker's  romantic  career  has  gained  very  little  in- 
spiration or  help  from  it  toward  his  own  elevation  and 
advancement,  for  he  looks  upon  it  as  the  result  of  good 
luck,  chance,  or  fate.  "  What  a  lucky  fellow,"  he  says 
to  himself  as  he  reads  ;  "  what  a  bonanza  he  fell  into." 
But  a  careful  analysis  of  Wanamaker's  life  only  en- 
forces the  same  lesson  taught  by  the  analysis  of  most 
great  lives,  namely,  that  a  good  mother,  a  good  consti- 
tution, the  habit  of  hard  work,  indomitable  energy,  a  de- 
termination which  knows  no  defeat,  a  decision  which 
never  wavers,  a  concentration  which  never  scatters  its 
forces,  courage  which  never  falters,  a  self-mastery 
which  can  say  No,  and  stick  to  it,  an  "  ignominious 
love  of  detail,"  strict  integrity  and  downright  honesty, 
a  cheerful  disposition,  unbounded  enthusiasm  in  one's 
calling,  and  a  high  aim  and  noble  purpose  insure  a  very 
large  measure  of  success. 

Youth  should  be  taught  that  there  is  something  in 
circumstances ;  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  poor 
pedestrian  happening  to  find  no  obstruction  in  his  way, 


THE   WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  ^b 

and  reaching  the  goal  when  a  better  walker  finds  the 
drawbridge  up,  the  street  blockaded,  and  so  fails  to  win 
the  race  ;  that  wealth  often  does  place  unworthy  sons  in 
high  positions ;  that  family  influence  does  gain  a  law- 
yer clients,  a  physician  patients,  an  ordinary  scholar 
a  good  professorship ;  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  po- 
sition, clients,  patients,  professorships,  manager's  and 
superintendent's  positions  do  not  necessarily  constitute 
success.  He  should  be  taught  that  in  the  long  run,  as 
a  rule,  the  best  man  does  ivin  the  best  i^ace,  and  that  per- 
sistent merit  does  succeed: 

There  is  about  as  much  chance  of  idleness  and  inca- 
pacity winning  real  success,  or  a  high  position  in  life, 
as  there  would  be  in  producing  a  Paradise  Lost  by  shak- 
ing up  promiscuously  the  separate  words  of  Webster's 
Dictionary,  and  letting  them  fall  at  random  on  the  floor. 
Fortune  smiles  upon  those  who  roll  up  their  sleeves  and 
put  their  shoulders  to  the  wheel ;  upon  men  who  are  not 
afraid  of  dreary,  dry,  irksome  drudgery,  men  of  nerve 
and  grit  who  do  not  turn  aside  for  dirt  and  detail. 

The  youth  should  be  taught  that  "he  alone  is  great, 
who,  by  a  life  heroic,  conquers  fate  ;  "  that  "  diligence  is 
the  mother  of  good  luck ; "  that,  nine  times  out  of  ten, 
w^hat  we  call  luck  or  fate  is  but  a  mere  bugbear  of  the 
indolent,  the  languid,  the  purposeless,  the  careless,  the 
indifferent ;  that  the  man  who  fails,  as  a  rule,  does  not 
see  or  seize  his  opportunity.  Opportunity  is  coy,  is 
swift,  is  gone,  before  the  slow,  the  unobservant,  the 
indolent,  or  the  careless  can  seize  her  :  — 

"In  idle  wishes  fools  supinel\'  stay: 
Be  there  a  will  and  wisdom -finds  a  way." 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  very  reputation  of 
being  strong  willed,  plucky,  and  indefatigable  is  of 
priceless  value.  It  often  cows  enemies  and  dispels  at 
the  start  opposition  to  one's  undertakings  which  would 
otherwise  be  formidable. 

"  If  Eric  's  in  robust  health,  and  has  slept  well,  and 


56  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

is  at  the  top  of  his  condition,  and  thirty  years  old  at 
his  departure  from  Greenland,"  says  Emerson,  ''he  will 
steer  west  and  his  ships  will  reach  Newfoundland. 
But  take  Eric  out  and  put  in  a  stronger  and  bolder 
man,  and  the  shij^s  will  sail  six  hundred,  one  thousand, 
fifteen  hundred  miles  further,  and  reach  Labrador  and 
New  England.  There  is  no  chance  in  results."  Obsta- 
cles tower  before  the  living  man  like  mountain  chains, 
stopping  his  path  and  hindering  his  progress.  He  sur- 
mounts them  by  his  energy.  He  makes  a  new  i3ath 
over  them.  He  climbs  upon  them  to  mountain  heights. 
They  cannot  stop  him.  They  do  not  much  delay  him. 
He  transmutes  difficulties  into  power,  and  makes  tem- 
porary failures  into  stepping-stones  to  ultimate  success. 

How  many  might  have  been  giants  who  are  only 
dwarfs.  How  many  a  one  has  died  "  with  all  his  music 
in  him." 

It  is  astonishing  what  men  who  have  come  to  their 
senses  late  in  life  have  accomplished  by  a  sudden  reso- 
lution. 

Arkwright  was  fifty  years  of  age  when  he  began  to 
learn  English  grammar  and  improve  his  writing  and 
spelling.  Benjamin  Eranklin  was  past  fifty  before  he 
began  the  study  of  science  and  philosophy.  Milton,  in 
his  blindness,  was  past  the  age  of  fifty  when  he  sat 
down  to  complete  his  world-known  epic,  and  Scott  at 
fifty-five  took  up  his  pen  to  redeem  an  enormous  liabil- 
ity. "  Yet  I  am  learning,"  said  Michael  Angelo,  when 
threescore  years  and  ten  were  past,  and  he  had  long 
attained  the  highest  triumphs  of  his  art. 

Even  brains  are  second  in  importance  to  will.  The 
vacillating  man  is  always  pushed  aside  in  the  race  of 
life.  It  is  only  the  weak  and  vacillating  who  halt  be- 
fore adverse  circumstances  and  obstacles.  A  man  with 
an  iron  will,  with  a  determination  that  nothing  shall 
check  his  career,  if  he  has  perseverance  and  grit,  is 
sure  to  succeed.     We  may  not  find  time  for  what  we 


THE    WILL  AND   THE    WAY.  57 

would  like,  but  what  we  long  for  and  strive  for  with  all 
our  strength,  we  usually  approximate  if  we  do  not  fully 
reach.  Hunger  breaks  through  stone  walls ;  stern 
necessity  will  find  a  way  or  make  one. 

Success  is  also  a  great  physical  as  well  as  mental 
tonic,  and  tends  to  strengthen  the  will-power.  Dr. 
Johnson  says  :  "  Resolutions  and  success  reciprocally 
produce  each  other."  Strong-willed  men,  as  a  rule,  are 
successful  men,  and  great  success  is  almost  impossible 
without  it. 

A  man  who  can  resolve  vigorously  upon  a  course  of 
action,  and  turns  neither  to  the  right  nor  the  left, 
though  a  paradise  tempt  him,  who  keeps  his  eyes  upon 
the  goal,  whatever  distracts  him,  is  sure  of  success. 
We  could  almost  classify  successes  and  failures  by 
their  various  degrees  of  will-power.  Men  like  Sir 
James  Mackintosh,  Coleridge,  La  Harpe,  and  many 
others  who  have  dazzled  the  world  with  their  bril- 
liancy, but  who  never  accomplished  a  tithe  of  what 
they  attempted ;  who  were  always  raising  our  expecta- 
tions that  they  were  about  to  perform  wonderful  deeds, 
but  who  accomplished  nothing  worthy  of  their  abilities, 
have  been  deficient  in  will-power.  One  talent  with  a 
will  behind  it  will  accomplish  more  than  ten  without 
it.  The  great  linguist  of  Bologna  mastered  a  hundred 
languages  by  taking  them  singly,  as  the  lion  fought  the 
bulls. 

I  wish  it  were  possible  to  show  the  youth  of  America 
the  great  part  that  the  will  might  play  in  their  success 
in  "life  and  in  their  happiness  also.  The  achievements 
of  will-power  are  simply  beyond  computation.  Scarcely 
anything  in  reason  seems  impossible  to  the  man  who 
can  will  strong  enough  and  long  enough. 

How  often  we  see  this  illustrated  in  the  case  of  a 
young  woman  who  suddenly  becomes  conscious  that 
she  is  plain  and  unattractive ;  who,  by  prodigious  ex- 
ercise of   her  will   and  untiring  industry,  resolves  to 


58  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

redeem  herself  from  obscurity  and  commonness ;  and 
who  not  only  makes  up  for  her  deficiencies,  but  elevates 
herself  into  a  prominence  and  importance  which  mere 
personal  attractions  could  never  have  given  her.  Char- 
lotte Cushman,  without  a  charm  of  form  or  face, 
climbed  to  the  very  top  of  her  profession.  How  many 
young  men,  stung  by  consciousness  of  physical  de- 
formity or  mental  deficiencies,  have,  by  a  strong  persis- 
tent exercise  of  will-power,  raised  themselves  from 
mediocrity  and  placed  themselves  high  above  those 
who  scorned  them. 

History  is  full  of  examples  of  men  and  women  who 
have  redeemed  themselves  from  disgrace,  poverty,  and 
misfortune,  by  the  firm  resolution  of  an  iron  will.  The 
consciousness  of  being  looked  upon  as  inferior,  as  in- 
capable of  accomplishing  what  others  accomplish ;  the 
sensitiveness  at  being  considered  a  dunce  in  school,  has 
stung  many  a  youth  into  a  determination  which  has 
elevated  him  far  above  those  who  laughed  at  him,  as  in 
the  case  of  Newton,  of  Adam  Clark,  of  Sheridan,  Wel- 
lington, Goldsmith,  Dr.  Chalmers,  Curran,  Disraeli,  and 
hundreds  of  others.  "  Whatever  you  wish,  that  jow. 
are ;  for  such  is  the  force  of  the  human  will,  joined  to 
the  Divine,  that  whatever  we  wish  to  be  seriously,  and 
with  a  true  intention,  that  we  become."  While  this  is 
not  strictly  true,  yet  there  is  a  deal  of  truth  in  it. 

It  is  men  like  Mirabeau,  who  "  trample  upon  impossi- 
bilities ;  "  like  Napoleon,  who  do  not  wait  for  opportuni- 
ties, but  make  them  ;  like  Grant,  who  has  only  "  uncon- 
ditional surrender"  for  the  enemy,  who  change  the 
very  front  of  the  world.  "  We  have  but  what  we  make, 
and  every  good  is  locked  by  nature  in  a  granite  hand, 
sheer  labor  must  unclench." 

What  cares  Henry  L.  Bulwer  for  the  suffocating 
cough,  even  though  he  can  scarcely  speak  above  a  whis- 
per ?  In  the  House  of  Commons  he  makes  his  immor- 
tal speech  on  the  Irish  Church  just  the  same. 


THE   WILL  AND   THE   WAY.  59 

"  I  can'tj  it  is  impossible,"  said  a  foiled  lieutenant,  to 
Alexander.  "  Be  gone,"  shouted  the  conquering  Mace- 
donian, "  there  is  nothing  impossible  to  him  who  will 
try." 

Were  I  called  upon  to  express  in  a  word  the  secret  of 
so  many  failures  among  those  who  started  out  in  life 
with  high  hopes,  I  should  say  unhesitatingly,  they 
lacked  will-power.  They  could  not  half  will.  What  is 
a  man  without  a  will  ?  He  is  like  an  engine  without 
steam,  a  mere  sport  of  chance,  to  be  tossed  about  hither 
and  thither,  always  at  the  mercy  of  those  who  have 
wills.  I  should  call  the  strength  of  will  the  test  of  a 
young  man's  possibilities.  Can  he  will  strong  enough, 
and  hold  whatever  he  undertakes  with  an  iron  grip  ? 
It  is  the  iron  grip  that  takes  the  strong  hold  on  life. 
What  chance  is  there  in  this  crowding,  pushing,  selfish, 
greedy  world,  where  everything  is  pusher  or  pushed, 
for  a  young  man  with  no  will,  no  grip  on  life  ?  "  The 
truest  wisdom,"  said  Napoleon,  "is  a  resolute  determi- 
nation." An  iron  will  without  principle  might  produce 
a  Napoleon ;  but  with  character  it  would  make  a  Wel- 
lington or  a  Grant,  untarnished  by  ambition  or  avarice. 

"  The  undivided  will 
'T  is  that  compels  the  elements  and  wrings 
A  human  music  from  the  indifferent  air." 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SUCCESS    UNDER    DIFFICULTIES. 

Victories  that  are  easy  are  cheap.  Those  only  are  worth  having  which 
come  as  the  result  of  hard  fighting.  —  Beecher. 

Man  owes  his  growth  chiefly  to  that  active  striving  of  the  will,  that  en- 
counter with  difficulty,  which  we  call  effort;  and  it  is  astonishing  to  tind 
how  often  results  that  seemed  impracticable  are  thus  made  possible. — 
Epes  Sahgent. 

I  know  no  such  unquestionable  badge  and  ensign  of  a  sovereign  mind 
as  that  tenacity  of  purpose  which,  through  all  change  of  companions,  or 
parties,  or  fortunes,  changes  never,  bates  no  jot  of  heart  or  hope,  but 
wearies  out  opposition  and  arrives  at  its  port.  —  Emehson. 

Yes,  to  this  thought  I  hold  with  firm  persistence  ; 
The  last  result  of  wisdom  stamps  it  true  ; 
He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  existence 
Who  daily  conquers  them  anew. 

Goethe. 
Little  minds  are  tamed  and  subdued  by  misfortunes;  but  great  minds 
rise  above  them.  —Washington  Irving. 

"  I  HAVE  here  three  teams  that  I  want  to  get  over  to 
Staten  Island,"  said  a  boy  of  twelve  one  day  in  1806  to 
the  innkeeper  at  South  Amboy,  N.  J.  "  If  you  will  put 
us  across,  I  '11  leave  with  you  one  of  my  horses  in  pawn, 
and  if  I  don't  send  you  back  six  dollars  within  forty- 
eight  hours  you  may  keep  the  horse." 

The  innkeeper  asked  the  reason  for  this  novel  propo- 
sition, and  learned  that  the  lad's  father  had  contracted 
to  get  the  cargo  of  a  vessel  stranded  near  Sandy  Hook, 
and  take  it  to  New  York  in  lighters.  The  boy  had 
been  sent  with  three  wagons,  six  horses,  and  three  men, 
to  carry  the  cargo  across  a  sand-spit  to  the  lighters. 
The  work  accomplished,  he  had  started  with  only  six 
dollars  to  travel  a  long  distance  home  over  the  Jersey 


WILLIAM    HICKLING    PRESCOTT 
How  can  you  keep  a  determined  man  from  success,?     Place  stumbling-blocks  in 
his  way,  and  he  uses  them  for  stepping-stones.     Imprison  him,  and  he  produces 
the  "Pilgrim's  Progress."     Deprive  him  of   eyesight,  and   he  writes  the  "Con- 
quest of  Mexico." 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  61 

sands,  and  reached  South  Am  boy  penniless.  "  I  '11  do 
it,"  said  the  innkeeper,  as  he  looked  into  the  bright 
honest  eyes  of  the  boy.     The  horse  was  soon  redeemed. 

"  My  son,"  said  this  same  boy's  mother,  on  the  first 
of  May,  1810,  when  he  asked  her  to  lend  him  one  hun- 
dred dollars  to  buy  a  boat,  having  imbibed  a  strong 
liking  for  the  sea ;  "  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  this 
month  you  will  be  sixteen  years  old.  If,  by  that  time, 
you  will  plow,  harrow,  and  plant  with  corn  the  eight- 
acre  lot,  I  will  advance  you  the  money."  The  field 
was  rough  and  stony,  but  the  work  was  done  in  time, 
and  well  done.  From  this  small  beginning  Cornelius 
Vanderbilt  laid  the  foundation  of  a  colossal  fortune. 
He  would  often  work  all  night ;  and,  as  he  was  never 
absent  from  his  post  by  day,  he  soon  had  the  best  busi- 
ness in  New  York  harbor. 

In  1813,  when  it  was  expected  that  New  York  would 
be  attacked  by  British  ships,  all  the  boatmen  except 
Cornelius  put  in  bids  to  convey  provisions  to  the  mili- 
tary posts  around  New  York,  naming  extremely  low 
rates,  as  the  contractor  would  be  exempted  from  mili- 
tary duty.  "  Why  don't  you  send  in  a  bid  ?  "  asked  his 
father.  "  Of  what  use  ?  "  replied  young  Vanderbilt ; 
"they  are  offering  to  do  the  work  at  half  price.  It 
can't  be  done  at  such  rates."  "  Well,"  said  his  father, 
"it  can  do  no  harm  to  try  for  it."  So,  to  please  his 
father,  but  with  no  hope  of  success,  Cornelius  made  an 
offer  fair  to  both  sides,  but  did  not  go  to  hear  the 
award.  When  his  companions  had  all  returned  with 
long  faces,  he  went  to  the  commissary's  office  and 
asked  if  the  contract  had  been  given.  "  Oh,  yes,"  was 
the  reply  ;  "  that  business  is  settled.  Cornelius  Van- 
derbilt is  the  man.  What  ?  "  he  asked,  seeing  that  the 
youth  was  apparently  thunderstruck,  "  is  it  you  ? " 
"  My  name  is  Cornelius  Vanderbilt,"  said  the  boatman. 
"  Well,"  said  the  commissary,  "  dcn't  you  know  why 
we  have  given  the  contract  to  you  ?  "     "  No."     "  Why, 


62  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

it  is  because  we  want  this  business  done,  and  we  know 
you  '11  do  it."     Character  gives  confidence. 

In  1818  he  owned  two  or  three  of  the  finest  coasting 
schooners  in  New  York  harbor,  and  had  a  capital  of 
nine  thousand  dollars.  Seeing  that  steam-vessels  would 
soon  win  supremacy  over  those  carrying  sails  only,  he 
gave  up  his  fine  business  to  become  the  captain  of  a 
steamboat  at  one  thousand  dollars  a  year.  For  twelve 
years  he  ran  between  New  York  city  and  New  Bruns- 
wick, N.  J.  In  1829  he  began  business  as  a  steamboat 
owner,  in  the  face  of  opposition  so  bitter  that  he  lost 
his  last  dollar.  But  the  tide  turned,  and  he  prospered 
so  rapidly  that  he  at  length  owned  over  one  hundred 
steamboats.  He  early  identified  himself  with  the  grow- 
ing railroad  interests  of  the  country,  and  became  the 
richest  man  of  his  day  in  America. 

Barnum  began  the  race  of  business  life  barefoot,  for 
at  the  age  of  fifteen  he  was  obliged  to  buy  on  credit  the 
shoes  he  wore  at  his  father's  funeral.  He  was  a  re- 
markable example  of  success  under  difficulties.  There 
was  no  keeping  him  down ;  no  opposition  daunted  him, 
no  obstacles  were  too  great  for  him  to  overcome. 
Think  of  a  man  being  ruined  at  fifty  years  of  age  ;  yes, 
worse  than  ruined,  for  he  was  heavily  in  debt  besides. 
Yet  on  the  very  day  of  his  downfall  he  begins  to  rise 
again,  wringing  victory  from  defeat  by  his  indomitable 
persistence. 

"  Eloquence  must  have  been  born  with  you,"  said  a 
friend  to  J.  P.  Curran.  "Indeed,  my  dear  sir,  it  was 
not,"  replied  the  orator ;  "  it  was  born  some  three  and 
twenty  years  and  some  months  after  me."  Speaking 
of  his  first  attempt  at  a  debating  club,  he  said :  "  I  stood 
up,  trembling  through  every  fibre ;  but  remembering 
that  in  this  I  was  but  imitating  Tully,  I  took  courage 
and  had  actually  proceeded  almost  as  far  as  '  Mr.  Chair- 
man,' when,  to  my  astonishment  and  terror,  I  perceived 
that  every  eye  was  turned  on  me.     There  were  only  six 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  63 

or  seven  present,  and  the  room  could  not  have  contained 
as  many  more ;  yet  was  it,  to  my  panic-stricken  imagi- 
nation, as  if  I  were  the  central  object  in  nature,  and 
assembled  millions  were  gazing  upon  me  in  breathless 
expectation.  I  became  dismayed  and  dumb.  My  friends 
cried,  '  Hear  him  ! '  but  there  was  nothing  to  hear."  He 
was  nicknamed  "  Orator  Mum,"  and  well  did  he  deserve 
the  title  until  he  ventured  to  stare  in  astonishment  at  a 
'speaker  who  was  "culminating  chronology  by  the  most 
preposterous  anachronisms."  "  I  doubt  not,"  said  the 
annoyed  speaker,  "  that  '  Orator  Mum '  possesses  won- 
derful talents  for  eloquence,  but  I  would  recommend 
him  to  show  it  in  future  by  some  more  popular  method 
than  his  silence."  Stung  by  the  taunt,  Curran  rose  and 
gave  the  man  a  "piece  of  his  mind,"  speaking  quite 
fluently  in  his  anger.  Encouraged  by  this  success,  he 
took  great  pains  to  become  a  good  speaker.  He  cor- 
rected his  habit  of  stuttering  by  reading  favorite  pas- 
sages aloud  every  day  slowly  and  distinctly,  and  spoke 
at  every  opportunity. 

Bunyan  wrote  his  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  on  the  un- 
twisted papers  used  to  cork  the  bottles  of  milk  brought 
for  his  meals.  Gifford  wrote  his  first  copy  of  a  math- 
ematical work,  when  a  cobbler's  apprentice,  on  small 
scraps  of  leather;  and  Rittenhouse,  the  astronomer, 
first  calculated  eclipses  on  his  plow  handle. 

A  poor  Irish  lad,  so  pitted  by  smallpox  that  boys 
made  sport  of  him,  earned  his  living  by  writing  little 
ballads  for  street  musicians.  Eight  cents  a  day  was 
often  all  he  could  earn.  He  traveled  through  France 
and  Italy,  begging  his  way  by  singing  and  playing  the 
flute  at  the  cottages  of  the  peasantry.  At  twenty-eight 
he  was  penniless  in  London,  and  lived  in  the  beggars' 
quarters  in  Axe  Lane.  In  his  poverty,  he  set  up  as  a 
doctor  in  the  suburbs  of  London.  He  wore  a  second- 
hand coat  of  rusty  velvet,  with  a  patch  on  the  left 
breast  which  he  adroitly  covered  with  his  three-cor- 


64  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

iiered  hat  during  his  visits ;  and  we  have  an  amusing 
anecdote  of  his  contest  of  courtesy  with  a  patient  who 
persisted  in  endeavoring  to  relieve  him  of  his  hat, 
which  only  made  him  press  it  more  devoutly  to  his 
heart.  He  often  had  to  jjawn  his  clothes  to  keep  from 
starving.  He  sold  his  "  Life  of  Voltaire  "  for  twenty 
dollars.  After  great  hardship  he  managed  to  publish 
his  "  Polite  Learning  in  Europe,"  and  this  brought  him 
to  public  notice.  Next  came  "The  Traveller,"  and  the' 
wretched  man  in  a  Fleet  Street  garret  found  himself 
famous.  His  landlady  once  arrested  him  for  rent,  but 
Dr.  Johnson  came  to  his  relief,  took  from  his  desk  the 
manuscript  of  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  and  sold  it  for 
three  hundred  dollars.  He  spent  two  years  revising 
"The  Deserted  Village"  after  it  was  first  written. 
Generous  to  a  fault,  vain  and  improvident,  imposed  on 
by  others,  he  was  continually  in  debt ;  although  for  his 
"  History  of  the  Earth  and  Animated  Nature  "  he  re- 
ceived four  thousand  dollars,  and  some  of  his  works, 
as,  for  instance,  "  She  Stoops  to  Conquer,"  had  a  large 
sale.  But  in  spite  of  fortune's  frown  and  his  own 
weakness,  he  won  success  and  fame.  The  world,  which 
so  often  comes  too  late  with  its  assistance  and  laurels, 
gave  to  the  weak,  gentle,  loving  author  of  "  The  Vicar 
of  Wakefield"  a  monument  in  the  Poets'  Corner  of 
Westminster  Abbey. 

The  poor,  scrofulous,  and  almost  blind  boy,  Samuel 
Johnson,  was  taken  by  his  mother  to  receive  the  touch 
of  Queen  Anne,  which  was  supposed  to  heal  the 
"  King's  Evil."  He  entered  Oxford  as  a  servant,  copy- 
ing lectures  from  a  student's  notebooks,  while  the  boys 
made  sport  of  the  bare  feet  showing  through  great 
holes  in  his  shoes.  Some  one  left  a  pair  of  new  shoes 
at  his  door,  but  he  was  too  proud  to  be  helped,  and 
threw  them  out  of  the  window.  He  was  so  poor  that 
he  was  obliged  to  leave  college,  and  at  twenty-six 
married  a  widow  of  forty-eight.     He  started  a  private 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  65 

school  with  his  wife's  money ;  but,  getting  only  three 
pupils,  was  obliged  to  close  it.  He  went  to  London, 
where  he  lived  on  nine  cents  a  day.  In  his  distress  he 
wrote  a  poem  in  which  appeared  in  capital  letters  the 
line,  "Slow  rises  worth  by  poverty  depressed,"  which 
attracted  wide  attention.  He  suffered  greatly  in  Lon- 
don for  thirteen  years,  being  arrested  once  for  a  debt  of 
thirteen  dollars.  At  forty  he  published  "  The  Vanity 
of  Human  Wishes,"  in  which  were  these  lines  :  — 

"  Then  mark  what  ills  the  scholar's  life  assail; 
Toil,  envy,  want,  the  patron  and  the  jail." 

When  asked  how  he  felt  about  his  failures,  he  replied : 
"Like  a  monument,"  —  that  is,  steadfast,  immovable. 
He  was  an  indefatigable  worker.  In  the  evenings  of 
a  single  week  he  wrote  "Easselas,"  a  beautiful  little 
story  of  the  search  for  happiness,  to  get  money  to  pay 
the  funeral  expenses  of  his  mother.  With  six  assist- 
ants he  worked  seven  years  on  his  Dictionary,  which 
made  his  fortune.  His  name  was  then  in  everybody's 
mouth,  and  when  he  no  longer  needed  help,  assistance, 
as  usual,  came  from  every  quarter.  The  great  universi- 
ties hastened  to  bestow  their  degrees,  and  King  George 
invited  him  to  the  palace. 

Lord  Mansfield  raised  himself  by  indefatigable  in- 
dustry from  oatmeal  porridge  and  poverty  to  affluence 
and  the  Lord  Chief  Justice's  Bench. 

Of  five  thousand  articles  sent  every  year  to  "Lip- 
pincott's  Magazine,"  only  two  hundred  were  accepted. 
How  much  do  you  think  Homer  got  for  his  Iliad  ?  or 
Dante  for  his  Paradise  ?  Only  bitter  bread  and  salt, 
and  going  up  and  down  other  people's  stairs.  In 
science,  the  man  who  discovered  the  telescope,  and  first 
saw  heaven,  was  paid  with  a  dungeon :  the  man  who 
invented  the  microscope,  and  first  saw  earth,  died  from 
starvation,  driven  from  his  home.  It  is  very  clear  in- 
deed that  God  means  all  good  work  and  talk  to  be  done 
for   nothing.     Shakespeare's    "Hamlet"  was  sold   for 


66  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

about  twenty-five  dollars ;  but  his  autograph,  has  sold 
for  five  thousand  dollars. 

During  the  ten  years  in  Avhich  he  made  his  greatest 
discoveries,  Isaac  Newton  could  hardly  pay  two  shillings 
a  week  to  the  Eoyal  Society  of  which  he  was  a  member. 
Some  of  his  friends  wanted  to  get  him  excused  from 
this  payment,  but  he  would  not  allow  them  to  act. 

There  are  no  more  interesting  pages  in  biography  than 
those  which  record  how  Emerson,  as  a  child,  was  unable 
to  read  the  second  volume  of  a  certain  book,  because  his 
widowed  mother  could  not  afford  the  amount  (five 
cents)  necessary  to  obtain  it  from  the  circulating 
library. 

Linnaeus  was  so  poor  when  getting  his  education,  that 
he  had  to  mend  his  shoes  with  folded  paper,  and  often 
had  to  beg  his  meals  of  his  friends. 

Who  in  the  days  of  the  First  Empire  cared  to  recall 
the  fact  that  Napoleon,  Emperor  and  King,  was  once 
forced  to  borrow  a  louis  from  Talma,  when  he  lived  in  a 
garret  on  the  Quai  Conti  ? 

David  Livingstone  at  ten  years  of  age  was  put  into  a 
cotton  factory  near  Glasgow.  Out  of  his  first  week's 
wages  he  bought  a  Latin  Grammar,  and  studied  in  the 
night  schools  for  years.  He  would  sit  up  and  study  till 
midnight  unless  his  mother  drove  him  to  bed,  notwith- 
standing he  had  to  be  at  the  factory  at  six  in  the  morn- 
ing. He  mastered  Virgil  and  Horace  in  this  way,  and 
read  extensively,  besides  studying  botany.  So  eager 
and  thirsty  for  knowledge  was  he,  that  he  would  place 
his  book  before  him  on  the  spinning-jenny,  and  amid  the 
deafening  roar  of  machinery  would  pore  over  its  pages. 

George  Eliot  said  of  the  years  of  close  work  upon  her 
"  Romola,"  "  I  began  it  a  young  woman,  I  finished  it  an 
old  woman."  One  of  Emerson's  biographers  says,  re- 
ferring to  his  method  of  rewriting,  revising,  correcting, 
and  eliminating :  "  His  apples  were  sorted  over  and  over 
again,  until  only  the  very  rarest,  the  most  perfect,  were 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  67 

left.  It  did  not  matter  that  those  thrown  away  were 
very  good  and  helped  to  make  clear  the  possibilities  of 
the  orchard,  they  were  unmercifully  cast  aside."  Car- 
lyle's  books  were  literally  wrung  out  of  him.  The  pains 
he  took  to  satisfy  himself  of  a  relatively  insignificant 
fact  were  incredible.  Before  writing  his  essay  on  Dide- 
rot, he  read  twenty-five  volumes  at  the  rate  of  one  per 
day.  He  tells  Edward  Fitzgerald  that  for  the  twentieth 
time  he  is  going  over  the  confused  records  of  the  battle 
of  ISTaseby,  that  he  may  be  quite  sure  of  the  topog- 
rapl]^. 

"All  the  performances  of  human  art,  at  which  we 
look  with  praise  and  wonder,''  says  Johnson,  "  are  in- 
stances of  the  resistless  force  of  perseverance  :  it  is  by 
this  that  the  quarry  becomes  a  pyramid,  and  that  dis- 
tant countries  are  united  with  canals.  If  a  man  was  to 
compare  the  effect  of  a  single  stroke  of  the  pickaxe,  or 
of  one  impression  of  the  spade,  with  the  general  design 
and  last  result,  he  would  be  overwhelmed  by  the  sense 
of  their  disproportion ;  yet  those  petty  operations,  in- 
cessantly continued,  in  time  surmount  the  greatest 
difficulties,  and  mountains  are  leveled,  and  oceans 
bounded,  by  the  slender  force  of  human  beings." 

The  Eev.  Eliphalet  Nott,  a  pulpit  orator,  was  es- 
pecially noted  for  a  sermon  on  the  death  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  great  statesman,  who  was  shot  in  a  duel 
by  Aaron  Burr.  Although  Xott  had  managed  in  some 
way  to  get  his  degree  at  Brown  University,  he  was  at  one 
time  so  poor  after  he  entered  the  ministry  that  he  could 
not  buy  an  overcoat.  His  wife  sheared  their  only  cos- 
set sheep  in  January,  wrapped  it  in^^urlap  blankets  to 
keep  it  from  freezing,  carded  and  spun  and  wove  the 
wool,  and  made  it  into  an  overcoat  for  him. 

Great  men  never  wait  for  opportunities ;  they  make 
them.  Nor  do  they  wait  for  facilities  or  favoring  cir- 
cumstances ;  they  seize  upon  whatever  is  at  hand,  work 
out  their  problem,  and  master  the  situation.     A  young 


68  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

man  determined  and  willing  will  find  a  way  or  make 
one.  A  Franklin  does  not  require  elaborate  apparatus ; 
he  can  bring  electricity  from  the  clouds  with  a  common 
kite.  A  Watt  can  make  a  model  of  the  condensing 
steam-engine  out  of  an  old  syringe  used  to  inject  the 
arteries  of  dead  bodies  previous  to  dissection.  A  Dr. 
Black  can  discover  latent  heat  with  a  pan  of  water  and 
two  thermometers.  A  Newton  can  unfold  the  composi- 
tion of  light  and  the  origin  of  colors  with  a  prism, 
a  lens,  and  a  piece  of  pasteboard.  A  Humphry  Davy 
can  experiment  with  kitchen  pots  and  x^ans,  and  a  Fara- 
day can  experiment  on  electricity  by  means  of  old  bot- 
tles, in  his  spare  minutes  while  a  book-binder.  When 
science  was  in  its  cradle  the  Marquis  of  Worcester,  an 
English  nobleman,  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  of  London, 
was  certainly  not  in  a  very  good  position  to  do  anything 
for  the  world,  but  would  not  waste  his  time.  The 
cover  of  a  vessel  of  hot  water  blown  off  before  his  eyes 
led  to  a  series  of  observations,  which  he  published  later 
in  a  book  called  "  Century  of  Inventions."  These  obser- 
vations were  a  sort  of  text-book  on  the  power  of  steam, 
which  resulted  in  Newcomen's  steam  -  engine,  which 
Watt  afterward  perfected.  A  Ferguson  maps  out  the 
heavenly  bodies,  lying  on  his  back,  by  means  of  threads 
with  beads  stretched  between  himself  and  the  stars. 

Not  in  his  day  of  bodily  strength  and  political  power, 
but  blind,  decrepit,  and  defeated  with  his  party,  Milton 
composed  "  Paradise  Lost." 

Great  men  have  found  no  royal  road  to  their  tri- 
umph. It  is  always  the  old  route,  by  way  of  industry 
and  perseverance. 

The  farmer  boy,  Elihu  B.  Washburn,  taught  school 
at  ten  dollars  per  month,  and  early  learned  the  lesson 
that  it  takes  one  hundred  cents  to  make  a  dollar.  In 
after  years  he  fought  "steals"  in  Congress,  until  he 
was  called  the  "Watchdog  of  the  Treasury."  From 
his  long  membership  he  became  known  as  the  "  Father 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  69 

of  the  House."  He  administered  the  oath  to  Schuyler 
Colfax  as  Speaker  three  times.  He  recommended  Grant 
as  colonel  of  a  regiment  of  volunteers.  The  latter, 
when  President,  appointed  him  Secretary  of  State,  and, 
later.  Minister  to  France.  During  the  reign  of  the 
Commune,  the  representatives  of  nearly  all  other  for- 
eign nations  fled  in  dismay,  but  Washburn  remained 
at  his  post.  Shells  exploded  close  to  his  office,  and  fell 
all  around  it,  but  he  did  not  leave  even  when  Paris  was 
in  flames.  For  a  time  he  was  really  the  minister  of  all 
foreign  countries,  in  Paris  ;  and  represented  Prussia  for 
almost  a  year.  The  Emperor  William  conferred  upon 
him  the  Order  of  the  Red  Eagle,  and  gave  him  a  jeweled 
star  of  great  value. 

How  could  the  poor  boy,  Elihu  Burritt,  working 
nearly  all  the  daylight  in  a  blacksmith's  shop,  get 
an  education  ?  He  had  but  one  book  in  his  library, 
and  carried  that  in  his  hat.  But  this  boy  with  no 
chance  became  one  of  America's  wonders. 

When  teaching  school,  Garfield  was  very  poor.  He 
tore  his  only  blue  jean  trousers,  but  concealed  the  rents 
by  pins  until  night,  when  he  retired  early  that  his 
boarding  mistress  might  mend  his  clothes.  "When 
you  get  to  be  a  United  States  Senator,"  said  she,  "  no 
one  will  ask  what  kind  of  clothes  you  wore  when 
teaching  school." 

Although  Michael  Angelo  made  himself  immortal  in 
three  different  occupations,  his  fame  might  well  rest 
upon  his  dome  of  St.  Peter  as  an  architect,  upon  his 
"  Moses  "  as  a  sculptor,  and  upon  his  "  Last  Judgment " 
as  a  painter ;  yet  we  find  by  his  correspondence  now  in 
the  British  Museum,  that  when  he  was  at  work  on  his 
colossal  bronze  statue  of  Pope  Julius  II.,  he  was  so 
poor  that  he  could  not  have  his  younger  brother  come 
to  visit  him  at  Bologna,  because  he  had  but  one  bed  in 
which  he  and  three  of  his  assistants  slept  together. 

"  I  was   always   at   the  bottom  of  my  purse,"  said 


70  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Zola,  in  describing  the  struggles  of  his  early  years  of 
authorship.  "  Very  often  I  had  not  a  sou  left,  and  not 
knowing,  either,  where  to  get  one.  I  rose  generally  at 
four  in  the  morning,  and  began  to  study  after  a  break- 
fast consisting  of  one  raw  Qgg.  But  no  matter,  those 
were  good  times.  After  taking  a  Avalk  along  the  quays, 
I  entered  my  garret,  and  joyfully  partaking  of  a  din- 
ner of  three  apples,  I  sat  down  to  work.  I  wrote,  and 
I  was  happy.  In  winter  I  would  allow  myself  no  fire ; 
wood  was  too  expensive  —  only  on  fete  days  was  I  able 
to  afford  it.  But  I  had  several  pipes  of  tobacco  and  a 
candle  for  three  sous.  A  three-sous  candle,  only  think 
of  it !     It  meant  a  whole  night  of  literature  to  me." 

James  Brooks,  once  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the 
^'  New  York  Daily  Express,"  and  later  an  eminent  con- 
gressman, began  life  as  a  clerk  in  a  store  in  Maine,  and 
when  twenty-one  received  for  his  pay  a  hogshead  of 
New  England  rum.  He  was  so  eager  to  go  to  college 
that  he  started  for  Water ville  with  his  trunk  on  his 
back,  and  when  he  was  graduated  he  was  so  poor  and 
plucky  that  he  carried  his  trunk  on  his  back  to  the 
station  when  he  went  home. 

When  Elias  Howe,  harassed  by  want  and  woe,  was 
in  London  completing  his  first  sewing-machine,  he  had 
frequently  to  borrow  money  to  live  on.  He  bought 
beans  and  cooked  them  himself.  He  also  borrowed 
money  to  send  his  wife  back  to  America.  He  sold  his 
first  machine  for  five  pounds,  although  it  was  worth 
fifty,  and  then  he  pawned  his  letters  patent  to  pay  his 
expenses  home. 

The  boy  Arkwright  begins  barbering  in  a  cellar,  but 
dies  worth  a  million  and  a  half.  The  world  treated  his 
novelties  just  as  it  treats  everybody's  novelties  —  made 
infinite  objection,  mustered  all  the  impediments,  but 
he  snapped  his  fingers  at  their  objections,  and  lived  to 
become  honored  and  wealthy. 

There  is  scarcely  a  great  truth  or  doctrine  but  has 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  71 

had  to  fight  its  way  to  public  recognition  in  the  face 
of  detraction,  calumny,  and  persecution.  "Every- 
where," says  Heine,  "that  a  great  soul  gives  utterance 
to  its  thoughts,  there  also  is  a  Golgotha." 

Nearly  every  great  discovery  or  invention  that  has 
blessed  mankind  has  had  to  fight  its  way  to  recognition, 
even  against  the  opposition  of  the  most  progressive  men. 

Even  Sir  Charles  Napier  fiercely  opposed  the  intro- 
duction of  steam  power  into  the  Royal  Navy.  In  the 
House  of  Commons,  he  exclaimed,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  when 
we  enter  Her  Majesty's  naval  service  and  face  the 
chances  of  war,  we  go  prepared  to  be  hacked  in  pieces,  to 
be  riddled  by  bullets,  or  to  be  blown  to  bits  by  shot  and 
shell ;  but  Mr.  Speaker,  we  do  not  go  prepared  to  be 
boiled  alive."     He  said  this  with  tremendous  emphasis. 

"Will  any  one  explain  how  there  can  be  a  light 
without  a  wick  ? "  asked  a  member  of  Parliament, 
when  William  Murdock,  toward  the  close  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  said  that  coal  gas  would  give  a  good 
light,  and  could  be  conveyed  into  buildings  in  pipes. 
"  Do  you  intend  taking  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  for  a 
gasometer  ?  "  was  the  sneering  question  of  even  the 
great  scientist,  Humphry  Davy.  Walter  Scott  ridi- 
culed the  idea  of  lighting  London  by  "  smoke,"  but  he 
soon  used  it  at  Abbotsford,  and  Davy  achieved  one  of 
his  greatest  triumphs  by  experimenting  with  gas  until 
he  had  invented  his  safety  lamp. 

Titian  used  to  crush  the  flowers  to  get  their  color, 
and  painted  the  white  walls  of  his  father's  cottage  in 
Tyrol  with  all  sorts  of  pictures,  at  which  the  moun- 
taineers gazed  in  wonder. 

"  That  boy  will  beat  me  one  day,"  said  an  old  painter 
as  he  watched  a  little  fellow  named  Michael  Angelo 
making  drawings  of  pot  and  brushes,  easel  and  stool, 
and  other  articles  in  the  studio.  The  barefoot  boy 
did  persevere  until  he  had  overcome  every  difficulty 
and  become  a  master  of  his  art. 


72  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

William  H.  Prescott  was  a  remarkable  example  of 
what  a  boy  with  "  no  chance  "  can  do.  While  at  col- 
lege, he  lost  one  eye  by  a  hard  piece  of  bread  thrown 
during  a  "  biscuit  battle,"  then  so  common  after  meals ; 
and,  from  sympathy,  the  other  eye  became  almost  use- 
less. But  the  boy  had  pluck  and  determination,  and 
would  not  lead  a  useless  life.  He  set  his  heart  upon 
being  a  historian,  and  turned  all  his  energies  in  that  di- 
rection. By  the  aid  of  others'  eyes,  he  spent  ten  years 
studying  before  he  even  decided  upon  a  particular  theme 
for  his  first  book.  Then  he  spent  ten  years  more,  por- 
ing over  old  archives  and  manuscripts,  before  he  pub- 
lished his  ''  Ferdinand  and  Isabella."  What  a  lesson  in 
his  life  for  young  men  !  What  a  rebuke  to  those  who 
have  thrown  away  their  opportunities  and  wasted  their 
lives ! 

"Galileo  with  an  opera-glass,"  said  Emerson,  "dis- 
covered a  more  splendid  series  of  celestial  phenomena 
than  any  one  since  with  the  great  telescopes.  Colum- 
bus found  the  new  world  in  an  undecked  boat." 

Surroundings  which  men  call  unfavorable  cannot  pre- 
vent the  unfolding  of,  your  powers.  From  the  plain 
fields  and  lowlands  of  Avon  came  the  Shakespearean 
genius  which  has  charmed  the  world.  From  among  the 
rock-ribbed  hills  of  New  Hampshire  sprang  the  greatest 
of  American  orators  and  statesmen,  Daniel  Webster. 
From  the  crowded  ranks  of  toil,  and  homes  to  which 
luxury  is  a  stranger,  have  often  come  the  leaders  and 
benefactors  of  our  race.  Indeed,  when  Christ  came 
upon  earth.  His  early  abode  was  a  place  so  poor  and  so 
much  despised  that  men  thought  He  could  not  be  the 
Christ,  asking,  in  utter  astonishment,  "Can  any  good 
thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ?  " 

"  I  once  knew  a  little  colored  boy,"  said  Frederick 
Douglass,  "  whose  mother  and  father  died  when  he  was 
but  six  years  old.  He  was  a  slave,  and  had  no  one  to 
care  for  him.     He  slept  on  a  dirt  floor  in  a  hovel,  and 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  73 

in  cold  weather  would  crawl  into  a  meal-bag  head  fore- 
most, and  leave  his  feet  in  the  ashes  to  keep  them  warm. 
Often  he  would  roast  an  ear  of  corn  and  eat  it  to  satisfy 
his  hunger,  and  many  times  has  he  crawled  under  the 
barn  or  stable  and  secured  eggs,  which  he  would  roast 
in  the  fire  and  eat.  That  boy  did  not  wear  pantaloons, 
as  you  do,  but  a  tow-linen  shirt.  Schools  were  unknown 
to  him,  and  he  learned  to  spell  from  an  old  Webster's 
spelling-book,  and  to  read  and  write  from  posters  on 
cellar  and  barn  doors,  while  boys  and  men  would  help 
him.  He  would  then  preach  and  speak,  and  soon  be- 
came well  known.  He  became  presidential  elector. 
United  States  marshal,  United  States  recorder,  United 
States  diplomat,  and  accumulated  some  wealth.  He 
wore  broadcloth,  and  did  n't  have  to  divide  crumbs  with 
the  dogs  under  the  table.  That  boy  was  Frederick 
Douglass.  What  was  possible  for  me  is  possible  for 
you.  Don't  think  because  you  are  colored  you  can't 
accomplish  anything.  Strive  earnestly  to  add  to  your 
knowledge.  So  long  as  you  remain  in  ignorance,  so 
long  will  you  fail  to  command  the  respect  of  your  fellow- 
men." 

Where  shall  we  find  an  illustration  more  impressive 
than  in  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  life,  career,  and  death 
might  be  chanted  by  a  Greek  chorus  as  at  once  the  pre- 
lude and  the  epilogue  of  the  most  imperial  theme  of 
modern  times  ?  Born  as  lowly  as  the  Son  of  God,  in  a 
hovel ;  of  what  real  parentage  we  know  not ;  reared  in 
penury,  squalor,  with  no  gleam  of  light,  nor  fair  sur- 
rounding ;  a  young  manhood  vexed  by  weird  dreains  and 
visions  ;  with  scarcely  a  natural  grace  ;  singularly  awk- 
ward, ungainly  even  among  the  uncouth  about  him :  it 
was  reserved  for  this  remarkable  character,  late  in  life, 
to  be  snatched  from  obscurity,  raised  to  supreme  com- 
mand at  a  supreme  moment,  and  intrusted  with  the 
destiny  of  a  nation.  The  great  leaders  of  his  party 
were  made  to  stand  aside  ;  the  most  experienced  and 


74  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

accomplished  men  of  the  day,  men  like  Seward,  and 
Chase,  and  Sumner,  statesmen  famous  and  trained,  were 
sent  to  the  rear,  while  this  strange  figure  was  brought  by- 
unseen  hands  to  the  front,  and  given  the  reins  of  power. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  man  in  London  deprived  of  both 
legs  and  arms,  who  managed  to  write  with  his  mouth  and 
perform  other  things  so  remarkable  as  to  enable  him  to 
earn  a  fair  living.  He  would  lay  certain  sheets  of  pa- 
per together,  pinning  them  at  the  corner  to  make  them 
hold.  Then  he  would  take  a  pen  and  write  some 
verses ;  after  which  he  would  proceed  to  embellish  the 
lines  by  many  skillful  flourishes.  Dropping  the  pen 
from  his  mouth,  he  would  next  take  up  a  needle  and 
thread,  also  with  his  mouth,  thread  the  needle,  and 
make  several  stitches.  He  also  painted  with  a  brush, 
and  was  in  many  other  ways  a  wonderful  man.  Instead 
of  being  a  burden  to  his  family  he  was  the  most  impor- 
tant contributor  to  their  welfare. 

Arthur  Cavanagh,  M.  P.,  was  born  without  arms  or 
legs,  yet  it  is  said  that  he  was  a  good  shot,  a  skillful 
fisherman  and  sailor,  and  one  of  the  best  cross  country 
riders  in  Ireland.  He  was  a  good  conversationalist, 
and  an  able  member  of  Parliament.  He  ate  with  his 
fork  attached  to  his  stump  of  an  arm,  and  wrote  holding 
his  pen  in  his  teeth.  In  riding  he  held  the  bridle  in 
his  mouth,  his  body  being  strapped  to  the  saddle.  He 
once  lost  his  means  of  support  in  India,  but  went  to 
work  with  his  accustomed  energy,  and  obtained  em- 
ployment as  a  carrier  of  dispatches. 

People  thought  it  strange  that  Gladstone  should  ap- 
point blind  Henry  Fawcett  Postmaster-G-eneral  of  Great 
Britian ;  but  never  before  did  any  one  fill  the  ofiice  so 
well. 

John  B.  Herreshoff,  of  Bristol,  R.  I.,  altliough  blind 
since  he  was  fifteen  years  old,  is  the  founder  and  head 
of  one  of  the  most  noted  shipbuilding  establishments 
in  the  world.     He  has  superintended  the  construction 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  75 

of  some  of  the  swiftest  torpedo  boats  and  steam  and  sail- 
ing yachts  afloat.  He  frequently  takes  his  turn  at  the 
wheel  in  sailing  his  vessels  on  trial  trips.  He  is  aided 
greatly  by  his  younger  brother  Nathaniel,  but  can  plan 
vessels  and  conduct  business  without  him.  After  exam- 
ining a  vessel's  hull  or  a  good  model  of  it,  he  will  gWe 
detailed  instructions  for  building  another  just  like  it, 
and  will  make  a  more  accurate  duplicate  than  can  most 
boat-builders  whose  sight  is  j^erfect. 

The  Rev.  William  H.  Milburn,  who  lost  his  sight 
when  a  child,  studied  for  the  ministry,  and  was  ordained 
before  he  attained  his  majority.  In  ten  years  he  trav- 
eled about  200,000  miles  in  missionary  work.  He  has 
written  half  a  dozen  books,  among  them  a  very  careful 
history  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  He  has  long  been 
chaplain  of  the  lower  house  of  Congress. 

Blind  Fanny  Crosby,  of  New  York,  was  a  teacher  of 
the  blind  for  many  years.  She  has  written  nearly  three 
thousand  hymns,  among  which  are  "Pass  Me  not,  0 
Gentle  Saviour,"  "Rescue  the  Perishing,"  "Saviour 
more  than  Life  to  Me,"  and  "Jesus  keep  Me  near  the 
Cross." 

ISTor  are  these  by  any  means  the  only  examples  of 
blind  people  now  doing  their  full  share  of  the  world's 
work.  In  the  United  States  alone  there  are  engaged  in 
musical  occupation  one  hundred  and  fifty  blind  piano 
tuners,  one  hundred  and  fifty  blind  teachers  of  music  in 
schools  for  the  blind,  five  hundred  blind  private  teach- 
ers, one  hundred  blind  church  organists,  fifteen  or  more 
blind  composers  and  publishers  of  music,  and  several 
blind  dealers  in  musical  instruments. 

The7'e  is  no  open  door  to  the  temple  of  success.  Every 
one  who  enters  makes  his  own  door,  which  closes  be- 
hind him  to  all  others,  not  even  permitting  his  own 
children  to  pass. 

Nearly  forty  years  ago,  on  a  rainy,  dreary  day  in  No- 
vember, a  young  widow  in  Philadelphia  sat  wondering 


76  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

how  she  could  feed  and  clothe  three  little  ones  left 
dependent  by  the  death  of  her  husband,  a  naval  officer. 
Happening  to  think  of  a  box  of  which  her  husband  had 
spoken,  she  opened  it,  and  found  therein  an  envelope 
containing  directions  for  a  code  of  colored  light  signals 
to  be  used  at  night  on  the  ocean.  The  system  was  not 
complete,  but  she  perfected  it,  went  to  Washington, 
and  induced  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  to  give  it  a  trial. 
An  admiral  soon  wrote  that  the  signals  were  good  for 
nothing,  although  the  idea  was  valuable.  For  months 
and  years  she  worked,  succeeding  at  last  in  producing 
brilliant  lights  of  different  colors.  She  was  ^Daid 
$20,000  for  the  right  to  manufacture  them  in  our  navy. 
]S'early  all  the  blockade  runners  captured  in  the  Civil 
War  were  taken  by  the  aid  of  the  Coston  signals,  which 
are  also  considered  invaluable  in  the  Life  Saving  Ser- 
vice. Mrs.  Coston  introduced  them  into  several  Euro- 
pean navies,  and  became  wealthy. 

A  modern  writer  says  that  it  is  one  of  the  mysteries 
of  our  life  that  genius,  that  noblest  gift  of  God  to  man, 
is  nourished  by  poverty.  Its  greatest  works  have  been 
achieved  by  the  sorrowing  ones  of  the  world  in  tears 
and  despair.  Not  in  the  brilliant  salon,  not  in  the  tap- 
estried library,  not  in  ease  and  competence,  is  genius 
usually  born  and  nurtured ;  but  often  in  adversity  and 
destitution,  amidst  the  harassing  cares  of  a  straitened 
household,  in  bare  and  lireless  garrets,  with  the  noise  of 
squalid  children,  in  the  turbulence  of  domestic  conten- 
tions, and  in  the  deep  gloom  of  uncheered  despair. 
This  is  its  most  frequent  birthplace,  and  amid  scenes 
like  these  unpropitious,  repulsive,  wretched  surround- 
ings, have  men  labored,  studied,  and  trained  themselves, 
until  they  have  at  last  emanated  from  the  gloom  of 
that  obscurity  the  shining  lights  of  their  times ;  have 
become  the  companions  of  kings,  the  guides  and  teachers 
of  their  kind,  and  exercised  an  influence  upon  the 
thought  of  the  world  amounting  to  a  species  of  intel- 
lectual legislation. 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  77 

Chauncey  Jerome's  education  was  limited  to  three 
months  in  the  district  school  each  year  until  he  was  ten, 
when  his  father  took  him  into  his  blacksmith  shop  at 
Plymouth,  Conn.,  to  make  nails.  Money  was  a  scarce 
article  with  young  Chauncey.  He  once  chopped  a  load 
of  wood  for  one  cent,  and  often  chopped  by  moonlight 
for  neighbors  at  less  than  a  dime  a  load.  His  father 
died  when  he  was  eleven,  and  his  mother  was  forced  to 
send  Chauncey  out,  with  tears  in  his  eyes  and  a  little 
bundle  of  clothes  in  his  hand,  to  earn  a  living  on  a 
farm.  His  new  employer  kept  him  at  work  early  and 
late  chopping  down  trees  all  day,  his  shoes  sometimes 
full  of  snow,  for  he  had  no  boots  until  he  was  nearly 
twenty-one.  At  fourteen  he  was  apprenticed  for  seven 
years  to  a  carpenter,  who  gave  him  only  board  and 
clothes.  Several  times  during  his  apprenticeship  he 
carried  his  tools  thirty  miles  on  his  back  to  his  work 
at  different  places.  After  he  had  learned  his  trade  he 
frequently  walked  thirty  miles  to  a  job  with  his  kit 
upon  his  back.  One  day  he  heard  people  talking  of  Eli 
Terry,  of  Plymouth,  who  had  undertaken  to  make  two 
hundred  clocks  in  one  lot.  "  He  '11  never  live  long 
enough  to  finish  them,"  said  one.  "  If  he  should,"  said 
another,  "he  could  not  possibly  sell  so  many.  The 
very  idea  is  ridiculous."  Chauncey  pondered  long  over 
this  rumor,  for  it  had  long  been  his  dream  to  become  a 
great  clock-maker.  He  tried  his  hand  at  the  first  op- 
portunity, and  soon  learned  to  make  a  wooden  clock. 
When  he  got  an  order  to  make  twelve  at  twelve  dollars 
apiece  he  thought  his  fortune  was  made.  One  night  he 
happened  to  think  that  a  cheap  clack  could  be  made  of 
brass  as  well  as  of  wood,  and  would  not  shrink,  swell, 
or  warp  appreciably  in  any  climate.  He  acted  on  the 
idea,  and  became  the  first  great  manufacturer  of  brass 
clocks.  He  made  millions  at  the  rate  of  six  hundred  a 
day,  exporting  them  to  all  parts  of  the  globe. 

"  The  History  of  the  English  People  "  was  written 


78  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

while  J.  E.  Green  was  struggling  against  a  mortal  ill- 
ness. He  had  collected  a  vast  store  of  materials,  and 
had  begun  to  write,  when  his  disease  made  a  sudden 
and  startling  progress,  and  his  physicians  said  they 
could  do  nothing  to  arrest  it.  In  the  extremity  of  ruin 
and  defeat  he  applied  himself  with  greater  fidelity  to 
his  work.  The  time  that  might  still  be  left  to  him  for 
work  must  henceforth  be  wrested,  day  by  day,  from  the 
grasp  of  death.  The  writing  occupied  five  months ; 
while  from  hour  to  hour  and  day  to  day  his  life  was 
prolonged,  his  doctors  said,  by  the  sheer  force  of  his 
own  will  and  his  inflexible  determination  to  finish  the 
<•  Making  of  England."  He  lay,  too  weak  to  lift  a  book, 
or  to  hold  a  pen,  dictating  every  word,  sometimes 
through  hours  of  intense  suffering.  Yet  so  conscien- 
tious was  he  that,  driven  by  death  as  he  was,  the  greater 
part  of  the  book  was  rewritten  five  times.  When  it  was 
done  he  began  the  "  Conquest  of  England,"  wrote  it,  re- 
viewed it,  and  then,  dissatisfied  with  it,  rejected  it  all 
and  began  again.  As  death  laid  its  cold  fingers  on  his 
heart,  he  said :  "  I  still  have  some  work  to  do  that  I 
know  is  good.  I  will  try  to  win  but  one  week  more  to 
write  it  down."  It  was  not  until  he  was  actually  dying 
that  he  said,  "  I  can  work  no  more." 

"What  does  he  know,"  said  a  sage,  "who  has  not 
suffered  ?  "  Schiller  produced  his  greatest  tragedies  in 
the  midst  of  physical  suffering  almost  amounting  to  tor- 
ture. Handel  was  never  greater  than  when,  warned  by 
palsy  of  the  approach  of  death,  and  struggling  with  dis- 
tress and  suffering,  he  sat  down  to  compose  the  great 
works  which  have  made  his  name  immortal  in  music. 
Mozart  composed  his  great  operas,  and  last  of  all  his 
"  Requiem,"  when  oppressed  by  debt  and  struggling 
with  a  fatal  disease.  Beethoven  produced  his  greatest 
works  amidst  gloomy  sorrow,  when  oppressed  by  almost 
total  deafness. 

Perhaps  no  one  ever  battled  harder  to  overcome  ob- 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  79 

stacles  which,  would  have  disheartened  most  men  than 
Demosthenes.  He  had  such  a  weak  voice,  and  such  an 
impediment  in  his  speech,  and  was  so  short  of  breath, 
that  he  could  scarcely  get  through  a  single  sentence 
without  stopping  to  rest.  All  his  first  attempts  were 
nearly  drowned  by  the  hisses,  jeers,  and  scoffs  of  his 
audiences.  His  first  effort  that  met  with  success  was 
against  his  guardian,  who  had  defrauded  him,  and  whom 
he  compelled  to  refund  a  part  of  his  fortune.  He  was 
so  discouraged  by  his  defeats  that  he  determined  to  give 
up  forever  all  attempts  at  oratory.  One  of  his  auditors, 
however,  believed  the  young  man  had  something  in  him, 
and  encouraged  him  to  persevere.  He  accordingly  ap- 
peared again  in  public,  but  was  hissed  down  as  before. 
As  he  withdrew,  hanging  his  head  in  great  confusion,  a 
noted  actor,  Satyrus,  encouraged  him  still  further  to  try 
to  overcome  his  impediment.  He  stammered  so  much 
that  he  could  not  pronounce  some  of  the  letters  at  all, 
and  his  breath  would  give  out  before  he  could  get 
through  a  sentence.  Finally,  he  determined  to  be  an 
orator  cost  what  it  might.  He  went  to  the  seashore 
and  practiced  amid  the  roar  of  the  breakers  with  small 
pebbles  in  his  mouth,  in  order  to  overcome  his  stammer- 
ing, and  at  the  same  time  accustom  himself  to  the 
hisses  and  tumults  of  his  audience.  He  overcame  his 
short  breath  by  practicing  speaking  while  running  up 
steep  and  difficult  places  on  the  shore.  His  awkward 
gestures  were  also  corrected  by  long  and  determined 
drill  before  a  mirror. 

Disheartened  by  the  expense  of  removing  the  trouble- 
some seeds,  Southern  planters  were  s,eriously  considering 
the  abandonment  of  cotton  culture.  To  clean  a  pound 
of  cotton  required  the  labor  of  a  slave  for  a  day.  Eli 
Whitney,  a  young  man  from  New  England,  teaching 
school  in  Georgia,  saw  the  state  of  affairs,  and  deter- 
mined to  invent  a  machine  to  do  the  work.  He  worked 
in  secret  for  many  months  in  a  cellar,  and  at  last  made 


80  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

a  machine  which  cleaned  the  cotton  perfectly  and  rap- 
idh\  Just  as  success  crowned  his  long  labor  thieves 
broke  into  the  cellar  and  stole  his  model.  He  recovered 
the  model,  but  the  principle  was  stolen,  and  other  ma- 
chines were  made  without  his  consent.  In  vain  he  tried 
to  protect  his  right  in  the  courts,  for  Southern  juries 
would  almost  invariably  decide  against  him.  He  had 
started  the  South  in  a  great  industry,  and  added  mil- 
lions to  her  wealth,  yet  the  courts  united  with  the  men 
who  had  infringed  his  patents  to  rob  him  of  the  reward 
of  his  ingenuity  and  industry.  At  last  he  abandoned 
the  whole  thing  in  disgust,  and  turned  his  attention  to 
making  improvements  in  firearms,  and  with  such  suc- 
cess that  he  accumulated  a  fortune. 

Robert  Collyer,  who  brought  his  bride  in  the  steerage 
when  he  came  to  America  at  the  age  of  twenty-seven, 
worked  at  the  anvil  nine  years  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
then  became  a  preacher,  soon  winning  national  renown. 

A  shrewd  observer  says  of  John  Chinaman:  "No 
sooner  does  he  put  his  foot  among  strangers  than  he 
begins  to  work.  No  office  is  too  menial  or  too  laborious 
for  him.  He  has  come  to  make  money,  and  he  will 
make  it.  His  frugality  requires  but  little :  he  barely 
lives,  but  he  saves  what  he  gets ;  commences  trade  in 
the  smallest  possible  way,  and  is  continually  adding  to 
his  store.  The  native  scorns  such  drudgery,  and  remains 
poor  ;  the  Chinaman  toils  patiently  on,  and  grows  rich. 
A  few  years  pass  by,  and  he  has  warehouses ;  becomes 
a  contractor  for  produce ;  buys  foreign  goods  by  the 
cargo  ;  and  employs  his  newly  imported  countrymen, 
who  have  come  to  seek  their  fortune  as  he  did.  He  is 
not  particularly  scrupulous  in  matters  of  opinion.  He 
never  meddles  with  politics,  for  they  are  dangerous  and 
not  profitable ;  but  he  will  adopt  any  creed,  and  carefully 
follow  any  observances,  if,  by  so  doing,  he  can  confirm 
or  improve  his  position.  He  thrives  with  the  Spaniard, 
and  works  while  the  latter  sleeps.     He  is  too  quick  for 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES,  81 

the  Dutchman,  and  can  smoke  and  bargain  at  the  same 
time.  He  has  harder  work  with  the  Englishman,  but 
still  he  is  too  much  for  him,  and  succeeds.  Climate  has 
no  effect  on  him :  it  cannot  stop  his  hands,  unless  it 
kills  him  ;  and  if  it  does,  he  dies  in  harness,  battling  for 
money  till  his  last  breath.  Whoever  he  may  be,  and  in 
whatever  position,  whether  in  his  own  or  a  foreign 
country,  he  is  diligent,  temperate,  and  uncomplaining. 
He  keeps  the  word  he  pledges,  pays  his  debts,  and  is 
capable  of  noble  and  generous  actions.  It  has  been 
customary  to  speak  lightly  of  him,  and  to  judge  a  whole 
people  by  a  few  vagabonds  in  a  provincial  seaport,  whose 
morals  and  manners  have  not  been  improved  by  foreign 
society." 

Columbus  was  dismissed  as  a  fool  from  court  after 
court,  but  he  pushed  his  suit  against  an  incredulous 
and  ridiculing  world.  Kebuffed  by  kings,  scorned  by 
queens,  he  did  not  swerve  a  hair's  breadth  from  the 
overmastering  purpose  which  dominated  his  souL  The 
words  "  New  World  "  were  graven  upon  his  heart ;  and 
reputation,  ease,  pleasure,  position,  life  itself  if  need  be, 
must  be  sacrificed.  Threats,  ridicule,  ostracism,  storms, 
leaky  vessels,  mutiny  of  sailors,  could  not  shake  his 
mighty  purpose. 

You  cannot  keep  a  determined  man  from  success. 
Place  stumbling-blocks  in  his  way  and  he  takes  them 
for  stepping-stones,  and  on  them  will  climb  to  great- 
ness. Take  away  his  money,  and  he  makes  spurs  of 
his  poverty  to  urge  him  on.  Cripple  him,  and  he  writes 
the  Waverley  Novels.  Lock  him  up  in  a  dungeon,  and 
he  composes  the  immortal  "  Pilgrim.'s  Progress."  Put 
him  in  a  cradle  in  a  log  cabin  in  the  wilderness  of 
America,  and  in  a  few  years  you  will  find  him  in  the 
Capitol  at  the  head  of  the  greatest  nation  on  the  globe. 

Would  it  were  possible  to  convince  the  struggling 
youth  of  to-day  that  all  that  is  great  and  noble  and  true 
in  the  history  of  die  world  is  the  result  of  infinite  pains- 


^Z\X 


82  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

taking,  perpetual  plodding,  of  common  every-day  in- 
dustry ! 

When  Lavoisier  the  chemist  asked  that  his  execution 
might  be  postponed  for  a  few  days  in  order  to  ascertain 
the  results  of  the  experiments  he  was  conducting  in 
prison,  the  communists  refused  to  grant  the  request,  say- 
ing: "The  Eepublic  has  no  need  of  philosophers."  Dr. 
Priestley's  house  was  burned  and  his  chemical  library 
destroyed  by  a  mob  shouting :  "  No  philosophers,"  and 
he  was  forced  to  flee  from  his  country.  Bruno  was 
burned  in  Eome  for  revealing  the  heavens,  and  Versa- 
lius  was  condemned  for  dissecting  the  human  body ; 
but  their  names  shall  live  as  long  as  time  shall  last. 
Kossuth  was  two  years  in  prison  at  Buda,  but  he  kept 
on  working,  undaunted.  John  Hunter  said :  "The  few 
things  I  have  been  enabled  to  do  have  been  accom- 
plished under  the  greatest  difficulties,  and  have  encoun- 
tered the  greatest  opposition." 

Eoger  Bacon,  one  of  the  profoundest  thinkers  the 
world  has  produced,  was  terribly  persecuted  for  his 
studies  in  natural  philosophy,  yet  he  persevered  and 
won  success.  He  was  accused  of  dealing  in  magic,  his 
books  were  burned  in  public,  and  he  was  kept  in  prison 
for  ten  years.  Even  our  own  revered  Washington  was 
mobbed  in  the  streets  because  he  would  not  pander  to 
the  clamor  of  the  people  and  reject  the  treaty  which 
Mr.  Jay  had  arranged  with  Great  Britain.  But  he  re- 
mained firm,  and  the  people  adopted  his  opinion.  The 
Duke  of  Wellington  was  mobbed  in  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don and  his  windows  were  broken  while  his  wife  lay 
dead  in  the  house  ;  but  the  "  Iron  Duke  "  never  faltered 
in  his  course,  or  swerved  a  hair's  breadth  from  his 
purpose. 

William  Phips,  when  a  young  man,  heard  some  sailors 
on  the  street,  in  Boston,  talking  about  a  Spanish  ship, 
wrecked  off  the  Bahama  Islands,  which  was  supposed 
to  have  money  on  board.     Young  Phips  determined  to 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  83 

find  it.  He  set  out  at  once,  and,  after  many  hardships, 
discovered  the  lost  treasure.  He  then  heard  of  another 
ship,  wrecked  off  Port  De  La  Plata  many  years  before. 
He  set  sail  for  England  and  importuned  Charles  II. 
for  aid.  To  his  delight  the  king  fitted  up  the  ship 
Rose  Algier  for  him.  He  searched  and  searched  for  a 
long  time  in  vain.  He  had  to  return  to  England  to 
repair  his  vessel.  James  II.  was  then  on  the  throne, 
and  he  had  to  wait  for  four  years  before  he  could  raise 
money  to  return.  His  crew  mutinied  and  threatened 
to  throw  him  overboard,  but  he  turned  the  ship's  guns 
on  them.  One  day  an  Indian  diver  went  down  for  a 
curious  sea  plant  and  saw  several  cannon  lying  on  the 
bottom.  They  proved  to  belong  to  the  wreck  for  which 
he  was  looking,  sunk  fifty  years  before.  He  had  no- 
thing but  dim  traditions  to  guide  him,  but  he  returned 
to  England  with  $1,500,000.  The  King  made  him  High 
Sheriff  of  New  England,  and  he  was  afterward  made 
Governor  of  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony. 

Ben  Jonson,  when  following  his  trade  of  a  mason, 
worked  on  Lincoln's  Inn  in  London  with  trowel  in 
hand  and  a  book  in  his  pocket.  Joseph  Hunter  was  a 
carpenter  in  youth,  Robert  Burns  a  plowman,  Keats  a 
druggist,  Thomas  Carlyle  and  Hugh  Miller  masons. 
Dante  and  Descartes  were  soldiers.  Andrew  Johnson 
was  a  tailor.  Cardinal  Wolsey,  Defoe,  and  Kirke  White 
were  butchers'  sons.  Faraday  was  the  son  of  a  black- 
smith, and  his  teacher,  Humphry  Davy,  was  an  appren- 
tice to  an  apothecary.  Kepler  was  a  waiter  boy  in 
a  German  hotel,  Bunyan  a  tinker,  Copernicus  the  son 
of  a  Polish  baker.  The  boy  Herschel  played  the  oboe 
for  his  meals.  Marshal  Ney,  the  "  bravest  of  the 
brave,"  rose  from  the  ranks.  His  great  industry  gained 
for  him  the  name  of  "  The  Indefatigable."  Soult  served 
fourteen  years  before  he  was  made  a  sergeant.  When 
made  Foreign  Minister  of  France  he  knew  very  little  of 
geography,  even.     Richard  Cobden  was  a  boy  in  a  Lon- 


84  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

don  warehouse.  His  first  speech  in  Parliament  was  a 
complete  failure ;  but  he  was  not  afraid  of  defeat,  and 
soon  became  one  of  the  greatest  orators  of  his  day. 
Seven  shoemakers  sat  in  Congress  during  the  first  cen- 
tury of  our  government :  Koger  Sherman,  Henry  Wil- 
son, Gideon  Lee,  William  Graham,  John  Halley,  H.  P. 
Baldwin,  and  Daniel  Sheffey. 

A  constant  struggle,  a  ceaseless  battle  to  bring  suc- 
cess from  inhospitable  surroundings,  is  the  price  of  all 
great  achievements. 

The  man  who  has  not  fought  his  way  up  to  his  own 
loaf,  and  does  not  bear  the  scar  of  desperate  conflict, 
does  not  know  the  highest  meaning  of  success. 

The  money  acquired  by  those  who  have  thus  strug- 
gled upward  to  success  is  not  their  only,  or  indeed  their 
chief  reward.  When,  after  years  of  toil,  of  opposition, 
of  ridicule,  of  repeated  failure,  Cyrus  W.  Field  placed 
his  hand  upon  the  telegraph  instrument  ticking  a  mes- 
sage under  the  sea,  think  you  that  the  electric  thrill 
passed  no  further  than  the  tips  of  his  fingers  ?  When 
Thomas  A.  Edison  demonstrated  in  Menlo  Park  that  the 
electric  light  had  at  last  been  developed  into  a  com- 
mercial success,  do  you  suppose  those  bright  rays  failed 
to  illuminate  the  inmost  recesses  of  his  soul  ?  Edward 
Everett  said :  "  There  are  occasions  in  life  in  which  a 
great  mind  lives  years  of  enjoyment  in  a  single  moment. 
I  can  fancy  the  emotion  of  Galileo  when,  first  raising 
the  newly  constructed  telescope  to  the  heavens,  he  saw 
fulfilled  the  grand  prophecy  of  Copernicus,  and  beheld 
the  planet  Venus  crescent  like  the  moon.  It  was  such 
another  moment  as  that  when  the  immortal  printers  of 
Mentz  and  Strasburg  received  the  first  copy  of  the  Bible 
into  their  hands,  the  work  of  their  divine  art ;  like  that 
when  Columbus,  through  the  gray  dawn  of  the  12th  of 
October,  1492,  beheld  the  shores  of  San  Salvador  ;  like 
that  when  the  law  of  gravitation  first  revealed  itself  to 
the  intellect  of  Xewton ;  like  that  when  Franklin  saw, 


SUCCESS   UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  85 

by  the  stiffening  fibres  of  the  hemp  cord  of  his  kite,  that 
he  held  the  lightning  in  his  grasp ;  like  that  when 
Leverrier  received  back  from  Berlin  the  tidings  that  the 
predicted  planet  was  found." 

"  Observe  yon  tree  in  your  neighbor's  garden,"  says 
Zanoni  to  Viola  in  Bulwer's  novel.  "  Look  how  it 
grows  up,  crooked  and  distorted.  Some  wind  scattered 
the  germ,  from  which  it  sprung,  in  the  clefts  of  the 
rock.  Choked  up  and  walled  round  by  crags  and  build- 
ings, by  nature  and  man,  its  life  has  been  one  struggle 
for  the  light.  You  see  how  it  has  writhed  and  twisted, 
—  how,  meeting  the  barrier  in  one  spot,  it  has  labored 
and  worked,  stem  and  branch,  towards  the  clear  skies  at 
last.  What  has  preserved  it  through  each  disfavor  of 
birth  and  circumstances  —  why  are  its  leaves  as  green 
and  fair  as  those  of  the  vine  behind  you,  which,  with 
all  its  arms,  can  embrace  the  open  sunshine  ?  My 
child,  because  of  the  very  instinct  that  impelled  the 
struggle,  — because  the  labor  for  the  light  won  to  the 
light  at  length.  So  with  a  gallant  heart,  through  every 
adverse  accident  of  sorrow,  and  of  fate,  to  turn  to  the 
sun,  to  strive  for  the  heaven  ;  this  it  is  that  gives  know- 
ledge to  the  strong  and  happiness  to  the  weak." 

"Each  petty  hand 
Can  steer  a  ship  becalmed ;  but  he  that  will 
Govern  her  and  carry  her  to  her  ends,  must  know 
His  tides,  his  currents;  how  to  shift  his  sails; 
What  she  will  bear  in  foul,  what  in  fair  weathers ; 
What  her  springs  are,  her  leaks,  and  how  to  stop  them; 
What  strands,  what  shelves,  what  rocks  to  threaten  her; 
The  forces  and  the  natures  of  all  winds, 
Gusts,  storms,  and  tempests;  when  her  keel  plows  hell, 
And  deck  knocks  heaven ;  then  to  manage  her 
Becomes  the  name  and  office  of  a  pilot." 


CHAPTER  y. 

USES    OF    OBSTACLES. 

Nature,  when  she  adds  difficulties,  adds  brains.  —  Emerson. 
Many  men  owe  the  grandeur  of  their  lives  to  their  tremendous  difficul- 
ties. —  Spurgeon. 

The  good  are  better  made  by  ill, 

As  odors  crushed  are  sweeter  still. 


Aromatic  plants  bestow 
No  spicy  fragrance  while  they  grow; 
But  crush'd  or  trodden  to  the  ground, 
Diffuse  their  balmv  sweets  around. 


Rogers. 


Goldsmith. 


As  night  to  stars,  woe  lustre  gives  to  man.  —  Young. 

There  is  no  possible  success  without  some  opposition  as  a  fulcrum:  force 
is  always  aggressive  and  crowds  something.  —  Holmes. 

The  more  difficulties  one  has  to  encounter,  within  and  without,  the  more 
significant  and  the  higher  in  inspiration  his  life  will  be.  —  Horace  Bush- 

NELL. 

Adversity  has  the  effect  of  eliciting  talents  which  in  prosperous  circum- 
stances would  have  lain  dormant.  —  Horace. 

For  gold  is  tried  in  the  fire  and  acceptable  men  in  the  furnace  of  adver- 
sity. —  SiRACH. 

Though  losses  and  crosses  be  lessons  right  severe, 

There 's  wit  there  ye  '11  get  there,  ye  '11  find  no  other  where. 

Burns. 

Possession  pampers  the  mind ;  privation  trains  and  strengthens  it.  — 
Hazlitt. 

"Adversity'-  is  the  prosperity  of  the  great." 

No  man  ever  worked  his  way  in  a  dead  calm.  — John  Neal. 

"  Kites  rise  against,  not  with,  the  wind." 

"  Many  and  many  a  time  since,"  said  Harriet  Marti- 
neau,  referring  to  her  father's  failure  in  business,  "  have 
we  said  that,  but  for  that  loss  of  money,  we  might  have 
lived  on  in  the   ordinary  provincial  method  of  ladies 


v;,;'    'HiVf ;\T»',\;.? 


JOHN    BUNYAN    " 
Sculptor  of  souls,  I  lift  to  Thee 

Encumbered  heart  and  hands  : 
Spare  not  tlie  chisel,  set  nie  free 

However  dear  the  bands." 


USES   OF  OBSTACLES.  87 

with  small  means,  sewing  and  economizing  and  growing 
narrower  every  year ;  whereas,  by  being  thrown,  while 
it  was  yet  time,  on  our  own  resources,  we  have  worked 
hard  and  usefully,  won  friends,  reputation,  and  inde- 
pendence, seen  the  world  abundantly,  abroad  and  at 
home  ;  in  short,  have  truly  lived  instead  of  vegetating." 

"I  do  believe  God  wanted  a  grand  poem  of  that 
man,"  said  George  Macdonald  of  Milton,  "and  so 
blinded  him  that  he  might  be  able  to  write  it." 

Two  of  the  three  greatest  epic  poets  of  the  world 
were  blind,  —  Homer  and  Milton;  while  the  third, 
Dante,  was  in  his  later  years  nearly,  if  not  altogether, 
blind.  It  almost  seems  as  though  some  great  charac- 
ters had  been  physically  crippled  in  certain  respects 
so  that  they  would  not  dissipate  their  energy,  but  con- 
centrate it  all  in  one  direction. 

"  I  have  been  beaten,  but  not  cast  down,"  said  Thiers, 
after  making  a  complete  failure  of  his  first  speech  in 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  "  I  am  making  my  first 
essay  in  arms.  In  the  tribune,  as  under  fire,  a  defeat 
is  as  useful  as  a  victory." 

A  distinguished  investigator  in  science  said  that 
when  he  encountered  an  apparently  insuperable  ob- 
stacle, he  usually  found  himself  upon  the  brink  of  some 
discovery. 

"  Eeturned  with  thanks  "  has  made  many  an  author. 
Failure  often  leads  a  man  to  success  by  arousing  his 
latent  energy,  by  firing  a  dormant  purpose,  by  awaken- 
ing powers  which  were  sleeping.  Men  of  mettle  turn 
disappointments  into  helps  as  the  oyster  turns  into 
pearl  the  sand  which  annoys  it. 

"  Let  the  adverse  breath  of  criticism  be  to  you  only 
what  the  blast  of  the  storm  wind  is  to  the  eagle,  —  a 
force  against  him  that  lifts  him  higher." 

A  kite  would  not  fly  unless  it  had  a  string  tying  it 
down.  It  is  just  so  in  life.  The  man  who  is  tied  down 
by  half  a   dozen   blooming   responsibilities   and  their 


88  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

mother  will  make  a  higher  and  stronger  flight  than  the 
bachelor  who,  having  nothing  to  keep  him  steady,  is 
always  floundering  in  the  mud.  If  you  want  to  ascend 
in  the  world  tie  yourself  to  somebody. 

''  It  was  the  severe  preparation  for  the  subsequent 
harvest,"  said  Pemberton  Leigh,  the  eminent  English 
lawyer,  speaking  of  his  early  poverty  and  hard  work. 
"  I  learned  to  consider  indefatigable  labor  as  the  indis- 
pensable condition  of  success,  pecuniary  independence 
as  essential  alike  to  virtue  and  happiness,  and  no  sacri- 
fice too  great  to  avoid  the  misery  of  debt." 

When  ISTapoleon's  companions  made  sport  of  him  on 
account  of  his  humble  origin  and  poverty  he  devoted 
himself  entirely  to  books,  and  soon  rising  above  them 
in  scholarship,  commanded  their  respect.  Soon  he 
was  regarded  as  the  brightest  ornament  of  the  class. 

"  To  make  his  way  at  the  bar,"  said  an  eniment  ju- 
rist, ''  a  young  man  must  live  like  a  hermit  and  work 
like  a  horse.  There  is  nothing  that  does  a  young  law- 
yer so  much  good  as  to  be  half  starved." 

Thousands  of  men  of  great  native  ability  have  been 
lost  to  the  world  because  they  have  not  had  to  wrestle 
with  obstacles,  and  to  struggle  under  difficulties  suffi- 
cient to  stimulate  into  activity  their  dormant  powers. 
No  effort  is  too  dear  which  helps  us  along  the  line  of 
our  proper  career. 

Poverty  and  obscurity  of  origin  may  impede  our 
progress,  but  it  is  only  like  the  obstruction  of  ice  or 
debris  in  the  river  temporarily  forcing  the  water  into 
eddies,  where  it  accumulates  strength  and  a  mighty 
reserve  which  ultimately  sweeps  the  obstruction  im- 
petuously to  the  sea.  Poverty  and  obscurity  are  not 
insurmountable  obstacles,  but  they  often  act  as  a  stim- 
ulus to  the  naturally  indolent,  and  develop  a  firmer  fibre 
of  mind,  a  stronger  muscle  and  stamina  of  body. 

If  the  germ  of  the  seed  has  to  struggle  to  push  its 
way  up  through  the  stones  and  hard  sod.  to  fight  its  way 


USES  OF  OBSTACLES.  89 

up  to  sunlight  and  air,  and  then  to  wrestle  with  storm 
and  tempest,  with  snow  and  frost,  the  fibre  of  its  tim- 
ber will  be  all  the  tougher  and  stronger. 

"  Do  you  wish  to  live  without  a  trial  ?  -'  asks  a  mod- 
ern teacher.  "  Then  you  wish  to  die  but  half  a  man. 
Without  trial  you  cannot  guess  at  your  own  strength. 
Men  do  not  learn  to  swim  on  a  table.  They  must  go 
into  deep  water  and  buffet  the  waves.  Hardship  is  the 
native  soil  of  manhood  and  self-reliance.  Trials  are 
rough  teachers,  but  rugged  schoolmasters  make  rugged 
pupils.  A  man  who  goes  through  life  prosperous,  and 
comes  to  his  grave  without  a  wrinkle,  is  not  half  a  man. 
Difficulties  are  God's  errands.  And  when  we  are  sent 
upon  them  we  should  esteem  it  a  proof  of  God's  confi- 
dence.    We  should  reach  after  the  highest  good." 

"  If  you  wish  to  rise,"  said  Talleyrand,  "  make  ene- 
mies." 

There  is  good  philosophy  in  the  injunction  to  love 
our  enemies,  for  they  are  often  our  best  friends  in 
disguise.  They  tell  us  the  truth  when  friends  flatter. 
Their  biting  sarcasm  and  scathing  rebuke  are  often 
mirrors  which  reveal  us  to  ourselves.  These  unkind 
stings  and  thrusts  are  spurs  which  urge  us  on  to 
grander  success  and  nobler  endeavor.  Friends  cover 
our  faults  and  rarely  rebuke ;  enemies  drag  out  to  the 
light  all  our  weaknesses  without  mercy.  We  dread 
these  thrusts  and  exposures  as  we  do  the  surgeon's 
knife,  but  are  the  better  for  them.  They  reach  depths 
before  untouched,  and  we  are  led  to  resolve  to  redeem 
ourselves  from  scorn  and  inferiority. 

We  are  the  victors  of  our  opponents.  They  have 
developed  in  us  the  very  power  by  which  we  overcome 
them.  Without  their  opposition  we  could  never  have 
braced  and  anchored  and  fortified  ourselves,  as  the  oak 
is  braced  and  anchored  for  its  thousand  battles  with 
the  tempests.  Our  trials,  our  sorrows,  and  our  griefs 
develop  us  in  a  similar  way. 


90  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

The  man  who  has  triumphed  over  difficulties  bears 
the  signs  of  victory  in  his  face.  An  air  of  triumph  is 
seen  in  every  movement. 

John  Calvin,  who  made  a  theology  for  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  was  tortured  with  dis- 
ease for  many  years,  and  so  was  Eobert  Hall.  The 
great  men  who  have  lifted  the  world  to  a  higher  level 
were  not  developed  in  easy  circumstances,  but  were 
rocked  in  the  cradle  of  difficulties  and  pillowed  on 
hardships. 

"The  gods  look  on  no- grander  sight  than  an  honest 
man  struggling  with  adversity." 

"  Then  I  must  learn  to  sing  better,"  said  Anaximan- 
der,  when  told  that  the  very  boys  laughed  at  his  singing. 

Strong  characters,  like  the  palm-tree,  seem  to  thrive 
best  when  most  abused.  Men  who  have  stood  up 
bravely  under  great  misfortune  for  years  are  often 
unable  to  bear  prosperity.  Their  good  fortune  takes 
the  spring  out  of  their  energy,  as  the  torrid  zone  ener- 
vates races  accustomed  to  a  vigorous  climate.  Some 
people  never  come  to  themselves  until  baffled,  rebuffed, 
thwarted,  defeated,  crushed,  in  the  opinion  of  those 
around  them.  Trials  unlock  their  virtues ;  defeat  is 
the  threshold  of  their  victory. 

It  is  defeat  that  turns  bone  to  flint ;  it  is  defeat  that 
turns  gristle  to  muscle ;  it  is  defeat  that  makes  men 
invincible ;  it  is  defeat  that  has  made  those  heroic  na- 
tures that  are  now  in  the  ascendency,  and  that  has 
given  the  sweet  law  of  liberty  instead  of  the  bitter  law 
of  oppression. 

Difficulties  call  out  great  qualities,  and  make  great- 
ness possible.  How  many  centuries  of  peace  would 
have  developed  a  Grant?  Few  knew  Lincoln  until 
the  great  weight  of  the  war  showed  his  character.  A 
century  of  peace  would  never  have  produced  a  Bis- 
marck. Perhaps  Phillips  and  Garrison  would  never 
have  been  known  to  history  had  it  not  been  for  slavery. 


USES  OF  OBSTACLES.  91 

"Will  lie  not  make  a  great  painter?"  was  asked  in 
regard  to  an  artist  fresh  from  his  Italian  tour.  "No, 
never,"  replied  Northcote.  "Why  not?"  "Because 
he  has  an  income  of  six  thousand  pounds  a  year."  In 
the  sunshine  of  wealth  a  man  is,  as  a  rule,  warped  too 
much  to  become  an  artist  of  high  merit.  A  drenching 
shower  of  adversity  would  straighten  his  fibres  out 
again.  He  should  have  some  great  thwarting  difficulty 
to  struggle  against. 

The  best  tools  receive  their  temper  from  fire,  their 
edge  from  grinding ;  the  noblest  characters  are  devel- 
oped in  a  similar  way.  The  harder  the  diamond,  the 
more  brilliant  the  lustre,  and  the  greater  the  friction 
necessary  to  bring  it  out.  Only  its  own  dust  is  hard 
enough  to  make  this  most  precious  stone  reveal  its  full 
beauty. 

The  spark  in  the  flint  would  sleep  forever  but  for 
friction  ;  the  fire  in  man  would  never  blaze  but  for  an- 
tagonism. The  friction  which  retards  a  train  upon  the 
track,  robbing  the  engine  of  a  fourth  of  its  power,  is  the 
very  secret  of  locomotion.  Oil  the  track,  remove  the 
friction,  and  the  train  will  not  move  an  inch.  The  mo- 
ment man  is  relieved  of  opposition  or  friction,  and  the 
track  of  his  life  is  oiled  with  inherited  wealth  or  other 
aids,  that  moment  he  often  ceases  to  struggle  and  there- 
fore ceases  to  grow. 

"It  is  this  scantiness  of  means,  this  continual  defi- 
ciency, this  constant  hitch,  this  perpetual  struggle  to  keep 
the  head  above  water  and  the  wolf  from  the  door,  that 
keeps  society  from  falling  to  pieces.  Let  every  man 
have  a  few  more  dollars  than  he  wants,  and  anarchy 
would  follow." 

Suddenly,  with  much  jarring  and  jolting,  an  electric 
car  came  to  a  standstill  just  in  front  of  a  heavy  truck 
that  was  headed  in  an  opposite  direction.  The  huge 
truck  wheels  were  sliding  uselessly  round  on  the  car 
tracks  that  were  wet  and  slippery  from  rain.     All  the 


92  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

urging  of  the  teamster  and  the  straining  of  the  horses 
were  in  vain,  —  until  the  motorman  quietly  tossed  a 
shovelful  of  sand  on  the  track  under  the  heavy  wheels, 
and  then  the  truck  lumbered  on  its  way.  "Friction 
is  a  very  good  thing,"  remarked  a  passenger. 

The  philosopher  Kant  observes  that  a  dove,  inasmuch 
as  the  only  obstacle  it  has  to  overcome  is  the  resistance 
of  the  air,  might  suppose  that  if  only  the  air  were  out 
of  the  way  it  could  fly  with  greater  rapidity  and  ease. 
Yet  if  the  air  were  withdrawn,  and  the  bird  should  try 
to  fly  in  a  vacuum,  it  would  fall  instantly  to  the  ground 
unable  to  fly  at  all.  The  very  element  that  offers  the 
opposition  to  flying  is  at  the  same  time  the  condition  of 
any  flight  whatever. 

Kough  seas  and  storms  make  sailors.  Emergencies 
make  giant  men.  But  for  our  Civil  War  the  names  of 
its  grand  heroes  would  not  be  written  among  the  great- 
est of  our  time. 

The  effort  or  struggle  to  climb  to  a  higher  place  in 
life  has  strength  and  dignity  in  it,  and  cannot  fail  to 
leave  us  stronger  for  the  struggle,  even  though  we  miss 
the  prize. 

From  an  aimless,  idle,  and  useless  brain,  emergencies 
often  call  out  powers  and  virtues  before  unknown  and 
unsuspected.  How  often  we  see  a  young  man  develop 
astounding  ability  and  energy  after  the  death  of  a  par- 
ent, or  the  loss  of  a  fortune,  or  after  some  other  calamity 
has  knocked  the  props  and  crutches  from  under  him. 
The  prison  has  roused  the  slumbering  fire  in  many  a 
noble  mind.  "  Robinson  Crusoe  "  was  written  in  prison. 
The  "  Pilgrim's  Progress  "  appeared  in  Bedford  Jail. 
The  "Life  and  Times  "  of  Baxter,  Eliot's  "  Monarchia 
of  Man,"  and  Penn's  "  No  Cross,  No  Crown,"  were  writ- 
ten by  prisoners.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  wrote  "The 
History  of  the  World"  during  his  imprisonment  of 
thirteen  years.  Luther  translated  the  Bible  while 
confined  in  the  Castle  of  Wartburg.     For  twenty  years 


USES  OF  OBSTACLES.  93 

Dante  worked  in  exile,  and  even  under  sentence  of 
death.  His  works  were  burned  in  public  after  his 
death  ;  but  genius  will  not  burn. 

Take  two  acorns  from  the  same  tree,  as  nearly  alike 
as  possible  ;  plant  one  on  a  hill  by  itself,  and  the  other 
in  the  dense  forest,  and  watch  them  grow.  The  oak 
standing  alone  is  exposed  to  every  storm.  Its  roots 
reach  out  in  every  direction,  clutching  the  rocks  and 
piercing  deep  into  the  earth.  Every  rootlet  lends  itself 
to  steady  the  growing  giant,  as  if  in  anticipation  of 
fierce  conflict  with  the  elements.  Sometimes  its  up- 
ward growth  seems  checked  for  years,  but  all  the  while 
it  has  been  expending  its  energy  in  pushing  a  root 
across  a  large  rock  to  gain  a  firmer  anchorage.  Then  it 
shoots  proudly  aloft  again,  prepared  to  defy  the  hurri- 
cane. The  gales  which  sport  so  rudely  with  its  wide 
branches  find  more  than  their  match,  and  only  serve 
still  further  to  toughen  every  minutest  fibre  from  pith 
to  bark. 

The  acorn  planted  in  the  deep  forest  shoots  up  a 
weak,  slender  sapling.  Shielded  by  its  neighbors,  it 
feels  no  need  of  spreading  its  roots  far  and.  wide  for 
support. 

Take  two  boys,  as  nearly  alike  as  possible.  Place 
one  in  the  country  away  from  the  hothouse  culture  and 
refinements  of  the  city,  with  only  the  district  school, 
the  Sunday-school,  and  a  few  books.  Remove  wealth 
and  props  of  every  kind ;  and,  if  he  has  the  right  kind 
of  material  in  him,  he  will  thrive.  Every  obstacle 
overcome  lends  him  strength  for  the  next  conflict.  If 
he  falls,  he  rises  with  more  determination  than  before. 
Like  a  rubber  ball,  the  harder  the  obstacle  he  meets  the 
higher  he  rebounds.  Obstacles  and  opposition  are  but 
apparatus  of  the  gymnasium  in  which  the  fibres  of  his 
manhood  are  developed.  He  compels  respect  and  rec- 
ognition from  those  who  have  ridiculed  his  poverty. 
Put  the  other  boy  in  a  Vanderbilt  family.      Give  him 


94  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

French  and  German  nurses ;  gratify  every  wish.  Place 
him  under  the  tutelage  of  great  masters  and  send  him 
to  Harvard.  Give  him  thousands  a  year  for  spending 
money,  and  let  him  travel  extensively. 

The  two  meet.  The  city  lad  is  ashamed  of  his  country 
brother.  The  plain,  threadbare  clothes,  hard  hands, 
tawny  face,  and  awkward  manner  of  the  country  boy 
make  sorry  contrast  with  the  genteel  appearance  of  the 
other.  The  poor  boy  bemoans  his  hard  lot,  regrets  that 
he  has  "no  chance  in  life,''  and  envies  the  city  youth. 
He  thinks  that  it  is  a  cruel  Providence  that  places  such 
a  wide  gulf  between  them.  They  meet  again  as  men, 
but  how  changed  !  It  is  as  easy  to  distinguish  the 
sturdy,  self-made  man  from  the  one  who  has  been 
propped  up  all  his  life  by  wealth,  position,  and  family 
influence,  as  it  is  for  the  shipbuilder  to  tell  the  differ- 
ence between  the  plank  from  the  rugged  mountain  oak 
and  one  from  the  sapling  of  the  forest.  If  you  think 
there  is  no  difference,  place  each  plank  in  the  bottom  of 
a  ship,  and  test  them  in  a  hurricane  at  sea. 

When  God  wants  to  educate  a  man,  he  does  not  send 
him  to  school  to  the  Graces,  but  to  the  Necessities. 
Through  the  pit  and  the  dungeon  Joseph  came  to  a 
throne.  We  are  not  conscious  of  the  mighty  cravings 
of  our  half  divine  humanity ;  we  are  not  aware  of  the 
god  within  us  until  some  chasm  yawns  which  must  be 
filled,  or  till  the  rending  asunder  of  our  affections 
forces  us  to  become  conscious  of  a  need.  Paul  in  his 
Eoman  cell ;  John  Huss  led  to  the  stake  at  Constance ; 
Tyndale  dying  in  his  prison  at  Amsterdam ;  Milton, 
amid  the  incipient  earthquake  throes  of  revolution, 
teaching  two  little  boys  in  Aldgate  Street ;  David  Liv- 
ingstone, worn  to  a  shadow,  dying  in  a  negro  hut  in 
Central  Africa,  alone,  —  what  failures  they  might  all 
to  themselves  have  seemed  to  be,  yet  what  mighty  pur- 
poses was  God  working  out  by  their  aj^parent  humilia- 
tions ! 


USES   OF  OBSTACLES.  95 

Two  highwaymen  chancing  once  to  pass  a  gibbet,  one 
of  them  exclaimed :  "  What  a  fine  profession  ours 
would  be  if  there  were  no  gibbets  !  "  "  Tut,  you  block- 
head," replied  the  other,  "gibbets  are  the  making  of 
us  ;  for,  if  there  were  no  gibbets,  every  one  would  be  a 
highwayman."  Just  so  with  every  art,  trade,  or  pur- 
suit ;  it  is  the  difficulties  that  scare  and  keep  out  un- 
worthy competitors. 

"  Success  grows  out  of  struggles  to  overcome  difficul- 
ties," says  Smiles.  "  If  there  were  no  difficulties,  there 
would  be  no  success.  In  this  necessity  for  exertion  we 
find  the  chief  source  of  human  advancement,  —  the  ad- 
vancement of  individuals  as  of  nations.  It  has  led  to 
most  of  the  mechanical  inventions  and  improvements 
of  the  age," 

"  Stick  your  claws  into  me,"  said  Mendelssohn  to 
his  critics  when  entering  the  Birmingham  orchestra. 
"  Don't  tell  me  what  you  like  but  what  you  don't  like." 

John  Hunter  said  that  the  art  of  surgery  would  never 
advance  until  professional  men  had  the  courage  to  pub- 
lish their  failures  as  well  as  their  successes. 

"  Young  men  need  to  be  taught  not  to  expect  a  per- 
fectly smooth  and  easy  way  to  the  objects  of  their  en- 
deavor or  ambition,"  says  Dr.  Peabody.  "  Seldom  does 
one  reach  a  position  with  which  he  has  reason  to  be  sat- 
isfied without  encountering  difficulties  and  what  might 
seem  discouragements.  But  if  they  are  properly  met, 
they  are  not  what  they  seem,  and  may  prove  to  be  helps, 
not  hindrances.  There  is  no  more  helpful  and  profiting 
exercise  than  surmounting  obstacles." 

It  is  said  that  but  for  the  disappointments  of  Dante, 
Florence  would  have  had  another  prosperous  Lord 
Mayor ;  and  the  ten  dumb  centuries  continued  voiceless, 
and  the  ten  other  listening  centuries  (for  there  will  be 
ten  of  them,  and  more)  would  have  had  no  "  Divina 
Commedia  "  to  hear  ! 

It  was  in  the  Madrid  jail  that  Cervantes  wrote  "  Don 


96  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Quixote."  He  was  so  poor  that  lie  could  not  even  get 
paper  during  the  last  of  his  writing,  and  had  to  write  on 
scraps  of  leather.  A  rich  Spaniard  was  asked  to  help 
him,  but  the  rich  man  replied :  "  Heaven  forbid  that 
his  necessities  should  be  relieved;  it  is  his  poverty 
that  makes  the  world  rich." 

"  A  constant  struggle,  a  ceaseless  battle  to  bring  suc- 
cess from  inhospitable  surroundings,  is  the  price  of  all 
great  achievements." 

"  She  sings  well,"  said  a  great  musician  of  a  promis- 
ing but  passionless  cantatrice,  "but  she  wants  some- 
thing, and  in  that  something,  everything.  If  I  were 
single,  I  would  court  her ;  I  would  marry  her ;  I  would 
maltreat  her;  I  would  break  her  heart;  and  in  six 
months  she  would  be  the  greatest  singer  in  Europe." 

"  He  has  the  stuff  in  him  to  make  a  good  musician," 
said  Beethoven  of  Rossini,  "  if  he  had  only  been  well 
flogged  when  a  boy ;  but  he  is  spoiled  by  the  ease  with 
which  he  composes." 

We  do  our  best  while  fighting  desperately  to  attain 
what  the  heart  covets.  Martin  Luther  did  his  greatest 
work,  and  built  up  his  best  character,  while  engaged  in 
sharp  controversy  with  the  Pope.  Later  in  life  his  wife 
asks,  "  Doctor,  how  is  it  that  whilst  subject  to  Papacy 
we  prayed  so  often  and  with  such  fervor,  whilst  now  we 
pray  with  the  utmost  coldness  and  very  seldom  ?  " 

When  Lord  Eldon  was  poor,  Lord  Thurlow  withheld 
a  promised  commissionership  of  bankruptcy,  saying 
that  it  was  a  favor  not  to  give  it  then.  "What  he 
meant  was,"  said  Eldon,  "  that  he  had  learned  I  was  by 
nature  very  indolent,  and  it  was  only  want  that  could 
make  me  very  industrious." 

Waters  says  that  the  struggle  to  obtain  knowledge 
and  to  advance  one's  self  in  the  world  strengthens  the 
mind,  disciplines  the  faculties,  matures  the  judgment, 
promotes  self-reliance,  and  gives  one  independence  of 
thought  and  force  of  character. 


USES   OF  OBSTACLES.  97 

"  The  gods  in  bounty  work  up  storms  about  us,"  says 
Addison,  '^tliat  give  mankind  occasion  to  exert  their 
hidden  strength,  and  throw  out  into  practice  virtues 
that  shun  the  day,  and  lie  concealed  in  the  smooth  sea- 
sons and  the  calms  of  life." 

The  hothouse  plant  may  tempt  a  pampered  appetite 
or  shed  a  languid  odor,  but  the  working  world  gets  its 
food  from  fields  of  grain  and  orchards  waving  in  the  sun 
and  free  air,  from  cattle  that  wrestle  on  the  plains, 
from  fishes  that  struggle  with  currents  of  river  or  ocean ; 
its  choicest  perfumes  from  flowers  that  bloom  unheeded, 
and  in  wind-tossed  forests  finds  its  timber  for  temples 
and  for  ships. 

"I  do  not  see,"  says  Emerson,  "how  any  man  can 
afford,  for  the  sake  of  his  nerves  and  his  nap,  to  spare 
any  action  in  which  he  can  partake.  It  is  pearls  and 
rubies  to  his  discourse.  Drudgery,  calamity,  exaspera- 
tion, want,  are  instructors  in  eloquence  and  wisdom. 
The  true  scholar  grudges  every  opportunity  of  action 
passed  by  as  a  loss  of  power." 

Kossuth  called  himself  "  a  tempest-tossed  soul,  whose 
eyes  have  been  sharpened  by  affliction." 

Benjamin  Franklin  ran  away,  and  George  Law  was 
turned  out  of  doors.  Thrown  upon  their  own  resources, 
they  early  acquired  the  energy  and  skill  to  overcome 
difficulties. 

As  soon  as  young  eagles  can  fly  the  old  birds  tumble 
them  out  and  tear  the  down  and  feathers  from  their 
nest.  The  rude  and  rough  experience  of  the  eaglet  fits 
him  to  become  the  bold  king  of  birds,  fierce  and  expert 
in  pursuing  his  prey. 

Boys  who  are  bound  out,  crowded  out,  kicked  out, 
usually  "  turn  out,"  while  those  who  do  not  have  these 
disadvantages  frequently  fail  to  "  come  out." 

"  It  was  not  the  victories  but  the  defeats  of  my  life 
which  have  strengthened  me,"  said  the  aged  Sidenham 
Poyntz. 


98  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Almost  from  the  dawn  of  history,  oppression  has 
been  the  lot  of  the  Hebrews,  yet  they  have  given  the 
world  its  noblest  songs,  its  wisest  proverbs,  its  sweetest 
music.  With  them  persecution  seems  to  bring  pros- 
perity. They  thrive  where  others  would  starve.  They 
hold  the  purse-strings  of  many  nations.  To  them  hard- 
ship has  been  "  like  spring  mornings,  frosty  but  kindly, 
the  cold  of  which  will  kill  the  vermin,  but  will  let  the 
plant  live." 

In  one  of  the  battles  of  the  Crimea  a  cannon-ball 
struck  inside  the  fort,  crashing  through  a  beautiful  gar- 
den. But  from  the  ugly  chasm  there  burst  forth  a 
spring  of  water  which  ever  afterward  flowed  a  living 
fountain.  From  the  ugly  gashes  which  misfortunes  and 
sorrows  make  in  our  hearts,  perennial  fountains  of  rich 
experience  and  new  joys  often  spring. 

Don't  lament  and  grieve  over  lost  wealth.  The  Cre- 
ator may  see  something  grand  and  mighty  which  even  He 
cannot  bring  out  as  long  as  your  wealth  stands  in  the 
way.  You  must  throw  away  the  crutches  of  riches  and 
stand  upon  your  own  feet,  and  develop  the  long  unused 
muscles  of  manhood.  God  may  see  a  rough  diamond 
in  you  which  only  the  hard  hits  of  poverty  can  polish. 

God  knows  where  the  richest  melodies  of  our  lives 
are,  and  what  drill  and  what  discipline  are  necessary  to 
bring  them  out.  The  frost,  the  snows,  the  tempests,  the 
lightnings,  are  the  rough  teachers  that  bring  the  tiny 
acorn  to  the  sturdy  oak.  Fierce  winters  are  as  neces- 
sary to  it  as  long  summers.  It  is  its  half-century's 
struggle  with  the  elements  for  existence,  wrestling  with 
the  storm,  fighting  for  its  life  from  the  moment  that  it 
leaves  the  acorn  until  it  goes  into  the  ship,  that  gives 
it  value.  Without  this  struggle  it  would  have  been 
character-less,  stamina-less,  nerve-less,  and  its  grain 
would  have  never  been  susceptible  of  high  polish.  The 
most  beautiful  as  well  as  the  strongest  woods  are  found 
not   in  tropical   climates,   but   in  the    severe  climates, 


USES   OF  OBSTACLES.  99 

where  they  have  to  fight  the  frosts  and  the  winter's 
cold- 
Many  a  man  has  never  found  himself  until  he  has  lost 
his  all.  Adversity  stripped  him  only  to  discover  him. 
Obstacles,  hardships  are  the  chisel  and  mallet  which 
shape  the  strong  life  into  beauty.  The  rough  ledge  on 
the  hillside  complains  of  the  drill,  of  the  blasting  powder 
which  disturbs  its  peace  of  centuries  :  it  is  not  pleasant 
to  be  rent  with  powder,  to  be  hammered  and  squared  by 
the  quarryman.  But  look  again :  behold  the  magnifi- 
cent statue,  the  monument,  chiseled  into  grace  and 
beauty,  telling  its  grand  story  of  valor  in  the  public 
square  for  centuries. 

The  statue  would  have  slept  in  the  marble  forever  but 
for  the  blasting,  the  chiseling,  and  the  polishing.  The 
angel  of  our  higher  and  nobler  selves  would  remain  for- 
ever unknown  in  the  rough  quarries  of  our  lives  but  for 
the  blastings  of  afiliction,  the  chiseling  of  obstacles,  and 
the  sand-papering  of  a  thousand  annoyances. 

Who  has  not  observed  the  patience,  the  calm  endur- 
ance, the  sweet  loveliness  chiseled  out  of  some  rough 
life  by  the  reversal  of  fortune  or  by  some  terrible 
affliction. 

How  many  business  men  have  made  their  greatest 
strides  toward  manhood,  have  developed  their  great- 
est virtues,  when  the  reverses  of  fortune  have  swept 
away  everything  they  had  in  the  world ;  when  disease 
had  robbed  them  of  all  they  held  dear  in  life.  Often 
we  cannot  see  the  angel  in  the  quarry  of  our  lives,  the 
statue  of  manhood,  until  the  blasts  of  misfortune  have 
rent  the  ledge,  and  difficulties  and  obstacles  have  squared 
and  chiseled  the  granite  blocks  into  grace  and  beauty. 

Many  a  man  has  been  ruined  into  salvation.  The 
lightning  which  smote  his  dearest  hopes  opened  up  a 
new  rift  in  his  dark  life,  and  gave  him  glimpses  of  him- 
self which,  until  then,  he  had  never  seen. 

The  grave  buried  his  dearest  hopes,  but  uncovered 


100  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

possibilities  in  his  nature  of  patience,  endurance,  and 
hope  which  he  never  dreamed  he  possessed  before. 

'^  Adversity  is  a  severe  instructor,"  says  Edmund 
Burke,  "  set  over  us  by  one  who  knows  us  better  than 
we  do  ourselves,  as  he  loves  us  better  too.  He  that 
wrestles  with  us  strengthens  our  nerves  and  sharpens 
our  skill.  Our  antagonist  is  our  helper.  This  conflict 
with  difficulty  makes  us  acquainted  with  our  object, 
and  compels  us  to  consider  it  in  all  its  relations.  It 
will  not  suffer  us  to  be  superficial." 

Men  who  have  the  right  kind  of  material  in  them 
will  assert  their  personality,  and  rise  in  spite  of  a  thou- 
sand adverse  circumstances.  You  cannot  keep  them 
down.  Every  obstacle  seems  only  to  add  to  their  abil- 
ity to  get  on. 

"  Under  different  circumstances,"  says  Castelar,  "  Sa- 
vonarola would  undoubtedly  have  been  a  good  husband, 
a  tender  father,  a  man  unknown  to  history,  utterly 
powerless  to  print  upon  the  sands  of  time  and  upon 
the  human  soul  the  deep  trace  Avhich  he  has  left ;  but 
misfortune  came  to  visit  him,  to  crush  his  heart,  and 
to  impart  that  marked  melancholy  which  characterizes 
a  soul  in  grief,  and  the  grief  that  circled  his  brows  with 
a  crown  of  thorns  was  also  that  which  wreathed  them 
with  the  splendor  of  immortality.  His  hopes  were  cen- 
tred in  the  woman  he  loved,  his  life  was  set  upon  the 
possession  of  her,  and  when  her  family  finally  rejected 
him,  partly  on  account  of  his  profession,  and  partly  on 
account  of  his  person,  he  believed  that  it  was  death 
that  had  come  upon  him,  when  in  truth  it  was  immor- 
tality." 

The  greatest  men  will  ever  be  those  who  have  risen 
from  the  ranks.  It  is  said  that  there  are  ten  thousand 
chances  to  one  that  genius,  talent,  and  virtue  shall  issue 
from  a  farmhouse  rather  than  from  a  palace. 

The  youth  Opie  earned  his  bread  by  sawing  wood, 
but  he  reached  a  professorship  in  the  Royal  Academy. 


USES  OF  OBSTACLES.  101 

When  but  ten  years  old  he  showed  the  material  he  was 
made  of  by  a  beautiful  drawing  on  a  shingle.  Antonio 
Canova  was  the  son  of  a  day  laborer.  Thorwaldsen's 
parents  were  poor,  but,  like  hundreds  of  others,  they 
did  with  their  might  what  their  hands  found  to  do,  and 
ennobled  their  work.  They  rose  by  being  greater  than 
their  calling,  as  Arkwright  rose  above  mere  barbering, 
Bunyan  above  tinkering,  Wilson  above  shoemaking, 
Lincoln  above  rail-splitting,  and  Grant  above  tanning. 
By  being  first-class  barbers,  tinkers,  shoemakers,  rail- 
splitters,  tanners,  they  acquired  the  power  Avhich  en- 
abled them  to  become  great  inventors,  authors,  states- 
men, generals. 

Adversity  exasperates  fools,  dejects  cowards,  draws 
out  the  faculties  of  the  wise  and  industrious,  puts  the 
modest  to  the  necessity  of  trying  their  skill,  awes  the 
opulent,  and  makes  the  idle  industrious.  Neither  do 
uninterrupted  success  and  prosperity  qualify  men  for 
usefulness  and  happiness.  The  storms  of  adversity, 
like  those  of  the  ocean,  rouse  the  faculties,  and  excite 
the  invention,  prudence,  skill,  and  fortitude  of  the  voy- 
ager. The  martyrs  of  ancient  times,  in  bracing  their 
minds  to  outward  calamities,  acquired  a  loftiness  of 
purpose  and  a  moral  heroism  worth  a  lifetime  of  soft- 
ness and  security.  A  man  upon  whom  continuous  sun- 
shine falls  is  like  the  earth  in  August:  he  becomes 
parched  and  dry  and  hard  and  close-grained.  Men  have 
drawn  from  adversity  the  elements  of  greatness.  If  you 
have  the  blues,  go  and  see  the  poorest  and  sickest  fami- 
lies within  your  knowledge.  The  darker  the  setting, 
the  brighter  the  diamond.  Don't  .run  about  and  tell 
acquaintances  that  you  have  been  unfortunate  ;  people 
do  not  like  to  have  unfortunate  men  for  acquaintances. 

Beethoven  was  almost  totally  deaf  and  burdened  with 
sorrow  when  he  produced  his  greatest  works.  Schiller 
wrote  his  best  books  in  great  bodily  suffering.  He  was 
not  free  from  pain  for  fifteen  years.     Milton  wrote  his 


102  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

leading  productions  when  blind,  poor,  and  sick.  "  Who 
best  can  suffer,"  said  he,  "  best  can  do."  Bunyan  said 
that,  if  it  were  lawful,  he  could  even  pray  for  greater 
trouble,  for  the  greater  comfort's  sake. 

"  Do  you  know  what  God  puts  us  on  our  backs  for  ?  " 
asked  Dr.  Payson,  smiling,  as  he  lay  sick  in  bed. 
"  No,"  replied  the  visitor.  "  In  order  that  we  may  look 
upward."  "  I  am  not  come  to  condole  but  to  rejoice 
with  you,"  said  the  friend ;  "  for  it  seems  to  me  that 
this  is  no  time  for  mourning."  "  Well,  I  am  glad  to 
hear  that,"  said  Dr.  Payson,  "  it  is  not  often  I  am  ad- 
dressed in  such  a  way.  The  fact  is  I  never  had  less 
need  of  condolence,  and  yet  everybody  persists  in  of- 
fering it ;  whereas,  when  I  was  prosperous  and  well, 
and  a  successful  preacher,  and  really  needed  condolence, 
they  flattered  and  congratulated  me." 

A  German  knight  undertook  to  make  an  immense 
^olian  harp  by  stretching  wires  from  tower  to  tower 
of  his  castle.  When  he  finished  the  harp  it  was  silent ; 
but  when  the  breezes  began  to  blow  he  heard  faint 
strains  like  the  murmuring  of  distant  music.  At  last 
a  tempest  arose  and  swept  with  fury  over  his  castle, 
and  then  rich  and  grand  music  came  from  the  wires. 
Ordinary  experiences  do  not  seem  to  touch  some  lives 
—  to  bring  out  any  poetry,  any  higher  manhood. 

Not  until  the  breath  of  the  plague  had  blasted  a  hun- 
dred thousand  lives,  and  the  great  fire  had  licked  up 
cheap,  shabby,  wicked  London,  did  she  arise,  phoenix- 
like, from  her  ashes  and  ruin,  a  grand  and  mighty  city. 

True  salamanders  live  best  in  the  furnace  of  perse- 
cution. 

"Every  man  who  makes  a  fortune  has  been  more 
than  once  a  bankrupt,  if  the  truth  were  known,"  said 
Albion  Tourgee.  "  Grant's  failure  as  a  subaltern  made 
him  commander-in-chief,  and  for  myself,  my  failure  to 
accomplish  what  I  set  out  to  do  led  me  to  what  I  never 
had  aspired  to." 


USES   OF  OBSTACLES.  103 

The  appeal  for  volunteers  in  the  great  battle  of  life, 
in  exterminating  ignorance  and  error,  and  planting 
high  on  an  everlasting  foundation  the  banner  of  intelli- 
gence and  right,  is  directed  to  i/ou.  Burst  the  trammels 
that  impede  your  progress,  and  cling  to  hope.  Place 
high  thy  standard,  and  with  a  firm  tread  and  fearless 
eye  press  steadily  onward. 

Not  ease,  but  effort,  not  facility,  but  difficulty,  makes 
men.  Toilsome  culture  is  the  price  of  great  success, 
and  the  slow  growth  of  a  great  character  is  one  of  its 
special  necessities.     Many  of  our  best  poets 

"Are  cradled  into  poetry  by  wrong, 
And  learn  in  suffering  what  they  teach  in  song." 

Byron  was  stung  into  a  determination  to  go  to  the 
top  by  a  scathing  criticism  of  his  first  book,  "  Hours  of 
Idleness,"  published  when  he  was  but  nineteen  years 
of  age.  Macaulay  said,  "There  is  scarce  an  instance 
in  history  of  so  sudden  a  rise  to  so  dizzy  an  eminence 
as  Byron  reached."  In  a  few  years  he  stood  by  the 
side  of  such  men  as  Scott,  Southey,  and  Campbell,  and 
died  at  thirty-seven,  that  age  so  fatal  to  genius.  Many 
an  orator  like  "stuttering  Jack  Curran,"  or  "Orator 
Mum,"  as  he  was  once  called,  has  been  spurred  into 
eloquence  by  ridicule  and  abuse. 

This  is  the  crutch  age.  "  Helps  "  and  "  aids  "  are 
advertised  everywhere.  We  have  institutes,  colleges, 
universities,  teachers,  books,  libraries,  newspapers,  mag- 
azines. Our  thinking  is  done  for  us.  Our  problems 
are  all  worked  out  in  "  explanations  "  and  "  keys."  Our 
boys  are  too  often  tutored  through  college  with  very 
little  study.  "'  Short  roads  "  and. "  abridged  methods  " 
are  characteristic  of  the  century.  Ingenious  methods 
are  used  everywhere  to  get  the  drudgery  out  of  the  col- 
lege course.  Newspapers  give  us  our  politics,  and 
preachers  our  religion.  Self-help  and  self-reliance  are 
getting  old  fashioned.  Nature,  as  if  conscious  of  de- 
layed blessings,  has  rushed  to  man's  relief  with  her 


104  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

wondrous  forces,  and  undertakes  to  do  the  world's  drud- 
gery and  emancipate  him  from  Eden's  curse. 

But  do  not  misinterpret  her  edict.  She  emancipates 
from  the  lower  only  to  call  to  the  higher.  She  does 
not  bid  the  world  go  and  play  while  she  does  the  work. 
She  emancipates  the  muscles  only  to  employ  the  brain 
and  heart. 

The  most  beautiful  as  well  as  the  strongest  characters 
are  not  developed  in  warm  climates,  where  man  finds 
his  bread  ready  made  on  trees,  and  where  exertion  is 
a  great  effort,  but  rather  in  a  trying  climate  and  on  a 
stubborn  soil.  It  is  no  chance  that  returns  to  the  Hin- 
doo ryot  a  penny  and  to  the  American  laborer  a  dollar 
for  his  daily  toil ;  that  makes  Mexico  with  its  mineral 
wealth  poor,  and  New  England  with  its  granite  and 
ice  rich.  It  is  rugged  necessity,  it  is  the  struggle  to 
obtain,  it  is  poverty  the  priceless  spur,  that  develops 
the  stamina  of  manhood,  and  calls  the  race  out  of  bar- 
barism. Labor  found  the  world  a  wilderness  and  has 
made  it  a  garden. 

As  the  sculptor  thinks  only  of  the  angel  imprisoned 
in  the  marble  block,  so  Nature  cares  only  for  the  man 
or  woman  shut  up  in  the  human  being.  The  sculptor 
cares  nothing  for  the  block  as  such ;  Nature  has  little 
regard  for  the  mere  lump  of  breathing  clay.  The  sculp- 
tor will  chip  off  all  unnecessary  material  to  set  free  the 
angel.  Nature  will  chip  and  pound  us  remorselessly  to 
bring  out  our  possibilities.  She  will  strip  us  of  wealth, 
humble  our  pride,  humiliate  our  ambition,  let  us  down 
from  the  ladder  of  fame,  will  discipline  us  in  a  thou- 
sand ways,  if  she  can  develop  a  little  character.  Every- 
thing must  give  way  to  that.  Wealth  is  nothing,  posi- 
tion is  nothing,  fame  is  nothing,  Tnanhood  is  everything. 

Not  ease,  not  pleasure,  not  happiness,  but  a  man, 
Nature  is  after.  In  every  great  painting  of  the  masters 
there  is  one  idea  or  figure  which  stands  out  boldly  be- 
yond everything  else.     Every  other  idea  or  figure  on 


USES   OF  OBSTACLES.  105 

the  canvas  is  subordinate  to  it,  but  pointing  to  the  cen- 
tral idea,  finds  its  true  expression  there.  So  in  the 
vast  universe  of  God,  every  object  of  creation  is  but  a 
guideboard  with  an  index-finger  pointing  to  the  central 
figure  of  the  created  universe  —  Man.  Nature  writes 
this  thought  upon  every  leaf,  she  thunders  it  in  every 
creation.  It  is  exhaled  from  every  flower  ;  it  twinkles 
in  every  star. 

Oh,  what  price  will  Nature  not  pay  for  a  man  !  Ages 
and  seons  were  nothing  for  her  to  spend  in  preparing 
for  his  coming,  or  to  make  his  existence  possible.  She 
has  rifled  the  centuries  for  his  development,  and  placed 
the  universe  at  his  disposal.  The  world  is  but  his 
kindergarten,  and  every  created  thing  but  an  object- 
lesson  from  the  unseen  universe.  Nature  resorts  to  a 
thousand  expedients  to  develop  a  perfect  type  of  her 
grandest  creation.  To  do  this  she  must  induce  him  to 
fight  his  way  up  to  his  own  loaf.  She  never  allows 
him  once  to  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  it  is  the  struggle 
to  attain  that  develops  the  man.  The  moment  we  put 
our  hand  upon  that  which  looks  so  attractive  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  which  we  struggled  so  hard  to  reach,  Nature 
robs  it  of  its  charm  by  holding  up  before  us  another 
prize  still  more  attractive. 

"  Life,"  says  a  philosopher,  "  refuses  to  be  so  ad- 
justed as  to  eliminate  from  it  all  strife  and  conflict  and 
pain.  There  are  a  thousand  tasks  that,  in  larger  in- 
terests than  ours,  must  be  done,  whether  we  want  them 
or  no.  The  world  refuses  to  walk  upon  tiptoe,  so  that 
we  may  be  able  to  sleep.  It  gets  up  very  early  and 
stays  up  very  late,  and  all  the  while  there  is  the  con- 
flict of  myriads  of  hammers  and  saws  and  axes  with  the 
stubborn  material  that  in  no  other  way  can  be  made  to 
serve  its  use  and  do  its  work  for  man.  And  then,  too, 
these  hammers  and  axes  are  not  wielded  without  strain 
or  pang,  but  swung  by  the  millions  of  toilers  who  labor 
with  their  cries  and  groans  and  tears.     Nay,  our  tern- 


106  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

pie-building,  whether  it  be  for  God  or  man,  exacts  its 
bitter  toll,  and  fills  life  with  cries  and  blows.  The 
thousand  rivalries  of  our  daily  business,  the  fiercer  ani- 
mosities when  we  are  beaten,  the  even  fiercer  exultation 
when  we  have  beaten,  the  crashing  blows  of  disaster, 
the  piercing  scream  of  defeat,  —  these  things  we  have 
not  yet  gotten  rid  of,  nor  in  this  life  ever  will.  Why 
should  we  wish  to  get  rid  of  them  ?  We  are  here,  my 
brother,  to  be  hewed  and  hammered  and  planed  in  God's 
quarry  and  on  God's  anvil  for  a  nobler  life  to  come." 
Only  the  muscle  that  is  used  is  developed. 

The  constantly  cheerful  man,  who  survives  his 
blighted  hopes  and  disappointments,  who  takes  them 
just  for  what  they  are,  lessons,  and  perhaps  blessings  in 
disguise,  is  the  true  hero. 

There  is  a  strength 

Deep  bedded  in  our  hearts  of  which  we  reck 
But  little,  till  the  shafts  of  heaven  have  pierced 
Its  fragile  dwelling.     Must  not  earth  be  rent 
Before  her  gems  are  found? 

Mrs.  Hemans. 

"If  what  shone  afar  so  grand 
Turns  to  ashes  in  the  hand, 
On  again,  the  virtue  lies 
In  the  struggle,  not  the  prize." 

"The  hero  is  not  fed  on  sweets, 
Dailj'  his  own  heart  he  eats  ; 
Chambers  of  the  great  are  jails, 
And  head-winds  right  for  royal  sails." 

"So  many  great 
Illustrious  spirits  have  conversed  with  woe, 
Have  in  her  school  been  taught,  as  are  enough 
To  consecrate  distress,  and  make  ambition 
Even  wish  the  frown  beyond  the  smile  of  fortune." 

Then  welcome  each  rebuff, 

That  turns  earth's  smoothness  rough, 

Each  sting,  that  bids  not  sit  nor  stand  but  go. 

Browning. 


BERNARD    PALISSY 
1  had  no  other  books  than  heaven  and  earth." 

"  Who  is  it  in  the  suburbs  here 

This  Potter,  working  with  sucli  cheer, 

This  madman,  as  the  people  say, 

Who  breaks  his  tables  and  his  chairs 

To  feed  his  furnace  fires  '.  " 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ONE    UNWAVERING    AIM. 

Life  is  an  arrow  —  therefore  j'ou  must  know 
What  mark  to  aim  at,  how  to  use  the  bow  — 
Then  draw  it  to  the  head  and  let  it  go. 

Henry  van  Dyke. 
The  important  thing  in  life  is  to  have  a  great  aim,  and  to  possess  the 
aptitude  and  perseverance  to  attain  it.  —  Goethk. 
Concentration  alone  conquers.  —  C.  Buxton. 
"  He  who  follows  two  hares  is  sure  to  catch  neither." 
"A  double-minded  man  is  unstable  in  all  his  waj's." 
Let  every  one  ascertain  his  special  business  and  calling,  and  then  stick 
to  it  if  he  would  be  successful.  —  Franklin. 

"  Digression  is  as  dangerous  as  stagnation  in  the  career  of  a  j'oung  man 
in  business." 

Every  man  who  observes  vigilantly  and  resolves  steadfastly  grows  un- 
consciously into  genius.  — Bulwer. 
Genius  is  intensity.  —  Balzac. 

"  Why  do  you  lead  sucii  a  solitary  life  ?  "  asked  a 
friend  of  Michael  Angelo.  "  Art  is  a  jealous  mistress," 
replied  the  artist ;  "  she  requires  the  whole  man."  Dur- 
ing his  labors  at  the  Sistine  Chapel,  according  to  Dis- 
raeli, he  refused  to  meet  any  one,  even  at  his  own  house. 

"That  day  we  sailed  westward,  which  was  our 
course,"  were  the  simple  but  grand  words  which  Co- 
lumbus wrote  in  his  journal  day  after  day.  Hope 
might  rise  and  fall,  terror  and  dismay  might  seize  upon 
the  crew  at  the  mysterious  variations  of  the  compass, 
but  Columbus,  unappalled,  pushed  due  west  and  nightly 
added  to  his  record  the  above  words. 

"Cut  an  inch  deeper,"  said  a  member  of  the  Old 
Guard  to  the  surgeon  probing  his  wound,  "and  you 
will  find  the  Emperor,"  —  meaning  his  heart.     By  the 


108  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

marvelous  power  of  concentrated  purpose  Napoleon  had 
left  his  name  on  the  very  stones  of  the  capital,  had 
burned  it  indelibly  into  the  heart  of  every  Frenchman, 
and  had  left  it  written  in  living  letters  all  over  Europe. 
France  to-day  has  not  shaken  off  the  spell  of  that  name. 
In  the  fair  city  on  the  Seine  the  mystic  "  N  "  confronts 
you  everywhere. 

Oh,  the  power  of  a  great  purpose  to  work  miracles ! 
It  has  changed  the  face  of  the  world.  Napoleon  knew 
that  there  were  plenty  of  great  men  in  France,  but 
they  did  not  know  the  might  of  the  unwavering  aim 
by  which  he  was  changing  the  destinies  of  Europe. 
He  saw  that  what  was  called  the  "  balance  of  power  " 
was  only  an  idle  dream ;  that,  unless  some  master-mind 
could  be  found  which  was  a  match  for  events,  the  mil- 
lions would  rule  in  anarchy.  His  iron  will  grasped  the 
situation ;  and  like  William  Pitt,  he  did  not  loiter 
around  balancing  the  probabilities  of  failure  or  success, 
or  dally  with  his  purpose.  There  was  no  turning  to 
the  right  nor  to  the  left ;  no  dreaming  away  time,  nor 
building  air-castles ;  but  one  look  and  purpose,  forward, 
upward  and  onward,  straight  to  his  goal.  He  always 
hit  the  bulFs-eye.  His  great  success  in  war  was  due 
largely  to  his  definiteness  of  aim.  He  was  like  a  great 
burning-glass,  concentrating  the  rays  of  the  sun  upon  a 
single  spot ;  he  burned  a  hole  wherever  he  went.  The 
secret  of  his  power  lay  in  his  ability  to  concentrate  his 
forces  upon  a  single  point.  After  finding  the  weak 
place  in  the  enemy's  ranks,  he  would  mass  his  men  and 
hurl  them  like  an  avalanche  upon  the  critical  point, 
crowding  volley  upon  volley,  charge  upon  charge,  till 
he  made  a  breach.  What  a  lesson  of  the  power  of  con- 
centration there  is  in  this  man's  life  !  He  was  able  to 
focus  all  his  faculties  upon  the  smallest  detail,  as  well 
as  upon  an  empire.  But,  alas !  Napoleon  was  himself 
defeated  by  violation  of  his  own  tactics,  —  the  con- 
stantly repeated  crushing  force  of  heavy  battalions 
upon  one  point. 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM.  109 

To  succeed  to-day  a  man  must  concentrate  all  the 
faculties  of  his  mind  upon  one  unwavering  aim,  and 
have  a  tenacity  of  purpose  which  means  death  or  vic- 
tory. Every  other  inclination  which  tempts  him  from 
his  aim  must  be  suppressed. 

New  Jersey  has  many  ports,  but  they  are  so  shallow 
and  narrow  that  the  shipping  of  the  entire  state 
amounts  to  but  little.  On  the  other  hand,  New  York 
has  but  one  ocean  port,  and  yet  it  is  so  broad,  deep,  and 
grand,  that  it  leads  America  in  its  enormous  shipping 
trade.  She  sends  her  vessels  into  every  port  of  the 
world,  while  the  ships  of  her  neighbor  are  restricted  to 
local  voyages. 

A  man  may  starve  on  a  dozen  half-learned  trades 
or  occupations  ;  he  may  grow  rich  and  famous  upon 
one  trade  thoroughly  mastered,  even  though  it  be  the 
humblest. 

Even  Gladstone,  with  his  ponderous  yet  active  brain, 
says  he  cannot  do  two  things  at  once ;  he  throws  his 
entire  strength  upon  whatever  he  does.  The  intensest 
energy  characterizes  everything  he  undertakes,  even 
his  recreation.  If  such  concentration  of  energy  is 
necessary  for  the  success  of  a  Gladstone,  what  can  we 
common  mortals  hope  to  accomplish  by  "scattera- 
tion  ?  " 

All  great  men  have  been  noted  for  their  power  of 
concentration  which  makes  them  oblivious  of  every- 
thing outside  their  aim.  Victor  Hugo  wrote  his  "  No- 
tre Dame"  during  the  revolution  of  1830,  while  the 
bullets  were  whistling  across  his  garden.  He  shut 
himself  up  in  one  room,  locking  iiis  clothes  up,  lest 
they  should  tempt  him  to  go  out  into  the  street,  and 
spent  most  of  that  winter  wrapped  in  a  big  gray  com- 
forter, pouring  his  very  life  into  his  work. 

Genius  is  intensity.  Abraham  Lincoln  possessed 
such  power  of  concentration  that  he  could  repeat  quite 
correctly  a  sermon  to  which  he  had  listened  in  his  boy- 


110  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

hood.  Dr.  0.  W.  Holmes,  when  an  Andover  student, 
riveted  his  eyes  on  the  book  he  was  studying  as  though 
he  were  reading  a  will  that  made  him  heir  to  a  million. 

A  New  York  sportsman,  in  answer  to  an  advertise- 
ment, sent  twenty-five  cents  for  a  sure  receipt  to  pre- 
vent a  shotgun  from  scattering,  and  received  the  fol- 
lowing :  "  Dear  Sir :  To  keep  a  gun  from  scattering 
put  in  but  a  single  shot." 

It  is  the  men  who  do  one  thing  in  this  world  who 
come  to  the  front.  Who  is  the  favorite  actor  ?  It  is 
a  Jefferson,  who  devotes  a  lifetime  to  a  "Rip  Van 
Winkle,"  a  Booth,  an  Irving,  a  Kean,  who  plays  one 
character  until  he  can  play  it  better  than  any  other 
man  living,  and  not  the  shallow  players  who  imperson- 
ate all  ]3arts.  It  is  the  man  who  never  steps  outside  of 
his  specialty  or  dissipates  his  individuality.  It  is  an 
Edison,  a  Morse,  a  Bell,  a  Howe,  a  Stephenson,  a  Watt. 
It  is  Adam  Smith,  spending  ten  years  on  the  "  Wealth 
of  Nations."  It  is  Gibbon,  giving  twenty  years  to  his 
"  Decline  and  Tall  of  the  Roman  Empire."  It  is  a 
Hume,  writing  thirteen  hours  a  day  on  his  "  History  of 
England."  It  is  a  Webster,  spending  thirty-six  years 
on  his  dictionary.  It  is  a  Bancroft,  working  twenty- 
six  years  on  his  "  History  of  the  United  States."  It  is 
a  Field,  crossing  the  ocean  fifty  times  to  lay  a  cable, 
while  the  world  ridicules.  It  is  a  Newton,  writing  his 
"  Chronology  of  Ancient  Nations  "  sixteen  times.  It  is 
a  Qrant,  who  proposes  to  "  fight  it  out  on  this  line  if  it 
takes  all  summer."  These  are  the  men  who  have  writ- 
ten their  names  prominently  in  the  history  of  the 
world. 

A  one-talent  man  who  decides  upon  a  definite  object 
accomplishes  more  than  the  ten-talent  man  who  scat- 
ters his  energies  and  never  knows  exactly  what  he  will 
do.  The  weakest  living  creature,  by  concentrating  his 
powers  upon  one  thing,  can  accomplish  something ;  the 
strongest,  by  dispersing  his  over  many,  may  fail  to  ac- 


ONE  UNWAVERING  AIM.  Ill 

complish  anything.  Drop  after  drop,  continually  fall- 
ing, wears  a  passage  through  the  hardest  rock.  The 
hasty  tempest,  as  Carlyle  points  out,  rushes  over  it 
with  hideous  uproar  and  leaves  no  trace  behind. 

A  great  purpose  is  cumulative  ;  and,  like  a  great 
magnet,  it  attracts  all  that  is  kindred  along  the  stream 
of  life. 

A  Yankee  can  splice  a  rope  in  many  different  ways ; 
an  English  sailor  only  knows  one  way,  but  that  is  the 
best  one.  It  is  the  one-sided  man,  the  sharp-edged  man, 
the  man  of  single  and  intense  purpose,  the  man  of 
one  idea,  who  turns  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left, 
though  a  paradise  tempt  him,  who  cuts  his  way  through 
obstacles  and  forges  to  the  front.  The  time  has  gone 
forever  when  a  Bacon  can  span  universal  knowledge ; 
or  when,  absorbing  all  the  knowledge  of  the  times,  a 
Dante  can  sustain  arguments  against  fourteen  dispu- 
tants in  the  University  of  Paris,  and  conquer  in  them 
all.  The  day  when  a  man  can  successfully  drive  a 
dozen  callings  abreast  is  a  thing  of  the  past.  Concen- 
tration is  the  keynote  of  the  century. 

Scientists  estimate  that  there  is  energy  enough  in  less 
than  fifty  acres  of  sunshine  to  run  all  the  machinery  in 
the  world,  if  it  could  be  concentrated.  But  the  sun 
might  blaze  out  upon  the  earth  forever  without  setting 
anything  on  fire  ;  although  these  rays  focused  by  a 
burning-glass  would  melt  solid  granite,  or  even  change 
a  diamond  into  vapor.  There  are  plenty  of  men  who 
have  ability  enough ;  the  rays  of  their  faculties,  taken 
separately,  are  all  right,  but  they  are  powerless  to  col- 
lect them,  to  bring  them  all  to  bear  upon  a  single  spot. 
Versatile  men,  universal  geniuses,  are  usually  weak,  be- 
cause they  have  no  power  to  concentrate  their  talents 
upon  one  point,  and  this  makes  all  the  difference  be- 
tween success  and  failure. 

Chiseled  upon  the  tomb  of  a  disappointed,  heart- 
broken king,  Joseph  II.  of  Austria,  in  the  Eoyal  Ceme- 


112  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

teiy  at  Vienna,  a  traveler  tells  us,  is  this  epitaph: 
"  Here  lies  a  monarch  who,  with  the  best  of  intentions, 
never  carried  out  a  single  plan." 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  was  a  man  of  remarkable 
ability.  He  excited  in  every  one  who  knew  him  the 
greatest  expectations.  Many  watched  his  career  with 
much  interest,  expecting  that  he  would  dazzle  the 
world.  But  there  was  no  purpose  in  his  life.  He  had 
intermittent  attacks  of  enthusiasm  for  doing  great 
things,  but  his  zeal  all  evaporated  before  he  could  de- 
cide what  to  do.  This  fatal  defect  in  his  character 
kept  him  balancing  between  conflicting  motives ;  and 
his  whole  life  was  almost  thrown  away.  He  lacked 
power  to  choose  one  object  and  persevere  with  a  single 
aim,  sacrificing  every  interfering  inclination.  He  vacil- 
lated for  weeks  trying  to  determine  whether  to  use 
"  usefulness  "  or  "  utility  "  in  a  composition. 

One  talent  utilized  in  a  single  direction  will  do  infi- 
nitely more  than  ten  talents  scattered.  A  thimbleful 
of  powder  behind  a  ball  in  a  rifle  will  do  more  execu- 
tion than  a  carload  of  powder  unconfined.  The  rifle- 
barrel  is  the  purpose  that  gives  direct  aim  to  the  pow- 
der, which  otherwise,  no  matter  how  good  it  might  be, 
would  be  powerless.  The  poorest  scholar  in  school  or 
college  often,  in  practical  life,  far  outstrips  the  class 
leader  or  senior  wrangler,  simply  because  what  little 
ability  he  has  he  employs  for  a  definite  object,  while 
the  other,  depending  upon  his  general  ability  and  bril- 
liant prospects,  never  concentrates  his  powers. 

'•A  sublime  self-confidence,"  says  E.  P.  Whipple, 
"springing  not  from  self-conceit,  but  from  an  intense 
identification  of  the  man  with  his  object,  lifts  him  alto- 
gether above  the  fear  of  danger  and  death,  and  commu- 
nicates an  almost  superhuman  audacity  to  his  will." 

It  is  fashionable  to  ridicule  the  man  of  one  idea,  but 
the  men  who  have  changed  the  front  of  the  world  have 
been  men  of  a  single  aim.     No  man  can  make  his  mark 


RICHARD    ARKWRIGHT 
What  a  sublime  spectacle  is  tliat  of  a  man  going  straight  to  his  goal,  cutting  his 
way  through  difficulties,  and  surmounting  obstacles  wliich  dishearten  others,  as 
though  they  were  stepping-stones. 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM.  113 

on  this  age  of  specialties  who  is  not  a  man  of  one  idea, 
one  supreme  aim,  one  master  passion.  The  man  who 
would  make  himself  felt  on  this  bustling  planet,  who 
would  make  a  breach  in  the  compact  conservatism  of 
our  civilization,  must  play  all  his  guns  on  one  point. 
A  wavering  aim,  a  faltering  purpose,  has  no  place  in 
the  nineteenth  century.  "  Mental  shiftlessness  "  is  the 
cause  of  many  a  failure.  The  world  is  full  of  unsuc- 
cessful men  who  spend  their  lives  letting  empty 
buckets  down  into  empty  wells. 

"  Mr.  A.  often  laughs  at  me,"  said  a  young  American 
chemist,  "  because  I  have  but  one  idea.  He  talks  about 
everything,  aims  to  excel  in  many  things;  but  I  have 
learned  that,  if  I  ever  wish  to  make  a  breach,  I  must 
play  my  guns  continually  upon  one  point."  This  great 
chemist,  when  an  obscure  schoolmaster,  used  to  study 
by  the  light  of  a  pine  knot  in  a  log  cabin.  Not  many 
years  later  he  was  performing  experiments  in  electro- 
magnetism  before  English  earls,  and  subsequently  he 
was  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  largest  scientific  insti- 
tutes of  this  country.  This  man  was  the  late  Professor 
Henry,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  AVashington. 

Douglas  Jerrold  once  knew  a  man  who  was  familiar 
with  twenty-four  languages  but  could  not  express  a 
thought  in  one  of  them. 

We  should  guard  against  a  talent  which  we  cannot 
hope  to  practice  in  perfection,  says  Goethe.  Improve 
it  as  we  may,  we  shall  always,  in  the  end,  when  the 
merit  of  the  matter  has  become  apparent  to  us,  pain- 
fully lament  the  loss  of  time  and  strength  devoted  to 
such  botching.  An  old  proverb  says  :  "  The  master  of 
one  trade  will  support  a  wife  and  seven  children,  and 
the  master  of  seven  will  not  support  himself." 

It  is  the  single  aim  that  wins.  Men  with  monopoliz- 
ing ambitions  rarely  live  in  history.  They  do  not 
focus  their  powers  long  enough  to  burn  their  names 
indelibly  into  the  roll  of  honor.     Edward  Everett,  even 


114  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

with  his  magnificent  powers,  disappointed  the  expecta- 
tions of  his  friends.  He  spread  himself  over  the  whole 
field  of  knowledge  and  elegant  culture ;  but  the  men- 
tion of  the  name  of  Everett  does  not  call  up  any  one 
great  achievement  as  does  that  of  names  like  Garrison 
and  Phillips.  Voltaire  called  the*Frenchman  La  Harpe 
an  oven  which  was  always  heating,  but  which  never 
cooked  anything.  Hartley  Coleridge  was  splendidly 
endowed  with  talent,  like  Sir  James  Mackintosh,  but 
there  was  one  fatal  lack  in  his  character  —  he  had  no 
definite  purpose,  and  his  life  was  a  failure.  Unstable 
as  water,  he  could  not  excel.  Southey,  his  uncle,  says : 
"  Coleridge  has  two  left  hands."  He  was  so  morbidly 
shy  from  living  alone  in  his  dreamland  that  he  could 
not  open  a  letter  without  trembling.  He  would  often 
rally  from  his  purposeless  life,  and  resolve  to  redeem 
himself  from  the  oblivion  he  saw  staring  him  in  the 
face;  but,  like  Mackintosh,  he  remained  a  man  of 
promise  merely  to  the  end  of  his  life. 

The  world  always  makes  way  for  the  man  with  a 
purpose  in  him,  like  Bismarck  or  Grant.  Look  at 
Rufus  Choate,  concentrating  all  his  attention  first  on 
one  juryman,  then  on  another,  going  back  over  the 
whole  line  again  and  again,  until  he  has  burned  his 
arguments  into  their  souls ;  until  he  has  hypnotized 
them  with  his  purpose ;  until  they  see  with  his  eyes, 
think  his  thoughts,  feel  his  sensations.  He  never 
stopped  until  he  had  projected  his  mind  into  theirs, 
and  permeated  their  lives  with  his  individuality. 
There  was  no  escape  from  his  concentration  of  purpose, 
his  persuasive  rhetoric,  his  convincing  logic.  "Carry 
the  jury  at  all  hazards/'  he  used  to  say  to  young  law- 
yers ;  "  move  heaven  and  earth  to  carry  the  jury,  and 
then  fight  it  out  with  the  judge  on  the  law  questions 
as  best  you  can." 

The  man  who  succeeds  has  a  programme.  He  fixes 
his  course  and  adheres  to  it.     He  lays  his  plans  and 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM.  115 

executes  them.  He  goes  straight  to  his  goal.  He  is 
not  pushed  this  way  and  that  every  time  a  difficulty 
is  thrown  in  his  path ;  if  he  can't  get  over  it  he  goes 
through  it.  Constant  and  steady  use  of  the  faculties 
under  a  central  purpose  gives  strength  and  power, 
while  the  use  of  faculties  without  an  aim  or  end  only 
weakens  them.  The  mind  must  be  focused  on  a  defi- 
nite end,  or,  like  machinery  without  a  balance-wheel,  it 
will  rack  itself  to  pieces. 

This  age  of  concentration  calls,  not  for  educated  men 
merely,  not  for  talented  men,  not  for  geniuses,  not  for 
jacks-of-all-trades,  but  for  men  who  are  trained  to  do 
one  thing  as  well  as  it  can  be  done.  Napoleon  could 
go  through  the  drill  of  his  soldiers  better  than  any  one 
of  his  men. 

Stick  to  your  aim.  The  constant  changing  of  one's 
occupation  is  fatal  to  all  success.  After  a  young  man 
has  spent  five  or  six  years  in  a  dry  goods  store,  he  con- 
cludes that  he  would  rather  sell  groceries,  thereby 
throwing  away  five  years  of  valuable  experience  which 
will  be  of  very  little  use  to  him  in  the  grocery  business  ; 
and  so  he  spends  a  large  part  of  his  life  drifting  around 
from  one  kind  of  employment  to  another,  learning  part 
of  each,  but  all  of  none,  forgetting  that  experience  is 
worth  more  to  him  than  money,  and  that  the  years 
devoted  to  learning  his  trade  or  occupation  are  the 
most  valuable.  Half-learned  trades,  no  matter  if  a  man 
has  twenty,  will  never  give  him  a  good  living,  much 
less  a  competency,  while  wealth  is  absolutely  out  of  the 
question. 

How  many  young  men  fail  to  reach  the  point  of  effi- 
ciency in  one  line  of  work  before  they  get  discouraged 
and  venture  into  something  else.  How  easy  to  see  the 
thorns  in  one's  own  profession  or  vocation,  and  only 
the  roses  in  that  of  another.  A  young  man  in  business, 
for  instance,  seeing  a  physician  riding  about  town  in 
his  carriage,  visiting  his  patients,  imagines  that  a  doc- 


116  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

tor  must  have  an  easy,  ideal  life,  and  wonders  tliat  he 
himself  should  have  embarked  in  an  occupation  so  full 
of  disagreeable  drudgery  and  hardships.  He  does  not 
know  of  the  years  of  dry,  tedious  study  which  the  phy- 
sician has  consumed,  the  months  and  perhaps  years  of 
waiting  for  patients,  the  dry  detail  of  anatomy,  the  end- 
less names  of  drugs  and  technical  terms. 

Scientists  tell  us  that  there  is  nothing  in  nature  so 
ugly  and  disagreeable  but  intense  light  will  make  it 
beautiful.  The  complete  mastery  of  one  profession  will 
render  even  the  driest  details  interesting.  The  con- 
sciousness of  thorough  knowledge,  the  habit  of  doing 
everything  to  a  finish,  gives  a  feeling  of  strength,  of 
superiority,  which  takes  the  drudgery  out  of  an  occu- 
pation. The  more  completely  we  master  a  vocation  the 
more  thoroughly  we  enjoy  it.  In  fact,  the  man  who  has 
found  his  place  and  become  master  in  it  could  scarcely 
be  induced,  even  though  he  be  a  farmer,  or  a  carpenter, 
or  grocer,  to  exchange  places  with  a  governor  or  con- 
gressman. To  be  successful  is  to  find  your  sphere  and 
fill  it,  to  get  into  your  place  and  master  it. 

There  is  a  sense  of  great  power  in  a  vocation  after  a 
man  has  reached  the  point  of  efficiency  in  it,  the  point 
of  productiveness,  the  point  where  his  skill  begins  to 
tell  and  bring  in  returns.  Up  to  this  point  of  efficiency, 
while  he  is  learning  his  trade,  the  time  seems  to  have 
been  almost  thrown  away.  But  he  has  been  storing  up 
a  vast  reserve  of  knowledge  of  detail,  laying  founda- 
tions, forming  his  acquaintances,  gaining  his  reputation 
for  truthfulness,  trustworthiness,  and  integrity,  and  in 
establishing  his  credit.  When  he  reaches  this  point  of 
efficiency,  all  the  knowledge  and  skill,  character,  influ- 
ence, and  credit  thus  gained  come  to  his  aid,  and  he 
soon  finds  that  in  what  seemed  almost  thrown  away 
lies  the  secret  of  his  i:)rosperity.  The  credit  he  estab- 
lished as  a  clerk,  the  confidence,  the  integrity,  the 
friendships  formed,  he  finds  equal  to  a  large  capital 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM.  117 

when  lie  starts  out  for  himself  and  takes  the  highway 
to  fortune;  while  the  young  man  who  half  learned 
several  trades,  and  got  discouraged  and  stopped  just 
short  of  the  point  of  efficiency,  just  this  side  of  suc- 
cess, is  a  failure  because  he  did  n't  go  far  enough ;  he 
did  not  press  on  to  the  point  at  which  his  acquisition 
would  have  been  profitable. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  nearly  all  very  successful 
men  have  made  a  life  work  of  one  thing,  we  see  on 
every  hand  hundreds  of  young  men  and  women  flitting 
about  from  occupation  to  occupation,  trade  to  trade,  in 
one  thing  to-day  and  another  to-morrow, — just  as 
though  they  could  go  from  one  thing  to  another  by 
turning  a  switch,  as  if  they  could  run  as  well  on  another 
track  as  on  the  one  they  have  left,  regardless  of  the 
fact  that  no  two  careers  have  the  same  gauge,  that 
every  man  builds  his  own  road  upon  which  another's 
engine  cannot  run  either  with  speed  or  safety.  This 
fickleness,  this  disposition  to  shift  about  from  one  occu- 
pation to  another,  seems  to  be  peculiar  to  American  life, 
so  much  so  that,  when  a  young  man  meets  a  friend 
whom  he  has  not  seen  for  some  time,  the  commonest 
question  to  ask  is,  "What  are  you  doing  now  ?  "  show- 
ing the  improbability  or  uncertainty  that  he  is  doing 
to-day  what  he  was  doing  when  they  last  met. 

Some  people  think  that  if  they  "  keep  everlastingly 
at  it "  they  will  succeed,  but  this  is  not  so.  Working 
without  a  plan  is  as  foolish  as  going  to  sea  without  a 
compass.  A  ship  which  has  broken  its  rudder  in  mid- 
ocean  may  "  keep  everlastingly  at  it,"  may  keep  on  a 
full  head  of  steam,  driving  about  all  the  time,  but  it 
never  arrives  anywhere,  it  never  reaches  any  port 
unless  by  accident;  and  if  it  does  find  a  haven,  its 
cargo  may  not  be  suited  to  the  people,  the  climate,  or 
conditions  among  which  it  has  accidentally  drifted.  The 
ship  must  be  directed  to  a  definite  port,  for  which  its 
cargo  is  adapted,  and  where  there  is  a  demand  for  it, 


118  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

and  it  must  aim  steadily  for  that  port  through  sun- 
shine and  storm,  through  tempest  and  fog.  So  a  man 
who  would  succeed  must  not  drift  about  rudderless  on 
the  ocean  of  life.  He  must  not  only  steer  straight 
toward  his  destined  port  when  the  ocean  is  smooth, 
when  the  currents  and  winds  serve,  but  he  must  keep 
his  course  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  wind  and  the 
tempest,  and  even  when  envelo]jed  in  the  fogs  of  dis- 
appointment and  mists  of  opposition.  The  Cunarders 
do  not  stop  for  fogs  or  storms  ;  they  plow  straight 
through  the  rough  seas  with  only  one  thing  in  view, 
their  destined  port,  and  no  matter  what  the  weather 
is,  no  matter  what  obstacles  they  encounter,  their  arri- 
val in  port  can  be  predicted  to  within  a  few  hours. 
It  is  practically  certain,  too,  that  the  ship  destined  for 
Boston  will  not  turn  up  at  Fort  Sumter  or  at  Sandy 
Hook. 

On  the  prairies  of  South  America  there  grows  a 
flower  that  always  inclines  in  the  same  direction.  If  a 
traveler  loses  his  way  and  has  neither  compass  nor 
chart,  by  turning  to  this  flower  he  will  find  a  guide  on 
which  he  can  implicitly  rely ;  for  no  matter  how  the 
rains  descend  or  the  winds  blow,  its  leaves  point  to  the 
north.  So  there  are  many  men  whose  purposes  are 
so  well  known,  whose  aims  are  so  constant,  that  no 
matter  what  difficulties  they  may  encounter,  or  what 
opposition  they  may  meet,  you  can  tell  almost  to  a 
certainty  where  they  will  come  out.  They  may  be 
delayed  by  head  winds  and  counter  currents,  but  they 
will  ahvays  head  for  the  port  and  will  steer  straight 
towards  the  harbor.  You  know  to  a  certainty  that 
whatever  else  they  may  lose,  they  will  not  lose  their 
compass  or  rudder. 

Whatever  may  happen  to  a  man  of  this  stamp,  even 
though  his  sails  may  be  swept  away  and  his  mast 
stripped  to  the  deck,  though  he  may  be  wrecked  by  the 
storms  of  life,  the  needle  of  his  compass  will  still  point 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM.  119 

to  the  North  Star  of  his  hope.  Whatever  comes,  his 
life  will  not  be  purposeless.  Even  a  wreck  that  makes 
its  port  is  a  greater  success  than  a  full-rigged  ship  with 
all  its  sails  flying,  with  every  mast  and  rope  intact, 
which  merely  drifts  into  an  accidental  harbor. 

To  fix  a  wandering  life  and  give  it  direction  is  not  an 
easy  task,  but  a  life  which  has  no  definite  aim  is  sure 
to  be  frittered  away  in  empty  and  purposeless  dreams. 
"  Listless  triflers,"  "  busy  idlers,"  "  purposeless  busy- 
bodies,"  are  seen  everywhere.  A  healthy,  definite 
purpose  is  a  remedy  for  a  thousand  ills  which  attend 
aimless  lives.  Discontent,  dissatisfaction,  flee  before  a 
definite  purpose.  An  aim  takes  the  drudgery  out  of 
life,  scatters  doubts  to  the  winds,  and  clears  up  the 
gloomiest  creeds.  What  we  do  without  a  purpose 
begrudgingly,  with  a  purpose  becomes  a  delight,  and  no 
work  is  well  done  nor  healthily  done  which  is  not 
enthusiastically  done.  It  is  just  that  added  element 
which  makes  work  immortal. 

Mere  energy  is  not  enough  ;  it  must  be  concentrated  on 
some  steady,  unwavering  aim.  What  is  more  common 
than  "unsuccessful  geniuses,"  or  failures  with  "com- 
manding talents  "  ?  Indeed,  "  unrewarded-  genius  "  has 
become  a  proverb.  Every  town  has  unsuccessful  edu- 
cated and  talented  men.  But  education  is  of  no  value, 
talent  is  worthless,  unless  it  can  do  something,  achieve 
something.  Men  who  can  do  something  at  everything, 
and  a  very  little  at  anything,  are  not  wanted  in  this 
age.  In  Paris,  a  certain  Monsieur  Kenard  announced 
himself  as  a  "  public  scribe,  who  digests  accounts,  ex- 
plains the  language  of  flowers,  and  sells  fried  pota- 
toes." Jacks-at-all-trades  are  at  war  with  the  genius 
of  the  times. 

What  this  age  wants  is  young  men  and  women  who 
can  do  one  thing  without  losing  their  identity  or  indi- 
viduality, or  becoming  narrow,  cramped,  or  dwarfed. 
Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  an  all-absorbing  purpose  ; 


120  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

education  will  not,  genius  will  not,  talent  will  not, 
industry  will  not,  will-j)ower  will  not.  The  purposeless 
life  must  ever  be  a  failure.  What  good  are  powers, 
faculties,  unless  we  can  use  them  for  a  purpose  ?  What 
good  would  a  chest  of  tools  do  a  carpenter  unless  he 
could  use  them  ?  A  college  education,  a  head  full  of 
knowledge,  are  worth  little  to  the  men  who  cannot  use 
them  to  some  definite  end. 

The  man  without  a  purpose  never  leaves  his  mark 
upon  the  world.  He  has  no  individuality ;  he  is  ab- 
sorbed in  the  mass,  lost  in  the  crowd,  weak,  wavering, 
incompetent.  His  outlines  of  individuality  and  angles 
of  character  have  been  worn  off,  planed  down  to  suit 
the  common  thought  until  he  has,  as  a  man,  been  lost 
in  the  throng  of  humanity. 

"He  who  would  do  some  great  thing  in  this  short 
life  must  apply  himself  to  the  work  with  such  a  con- 
centration of  his  forces  as,  to  idle  spectators,  who  live 
only  to  amuse  themselves,  looks  like  insanity." 

What  a  great  directness  of  purpose  may  be  traced  in 
the  career  of  Pitt,  who  lived  —  ay,  and  died  —  for  the 
sake  of  political  supremacy.  From  a  child,  the  idea 
was  drilled  into  him  that  he  must  accomplish  a  public 
career  worthy  of  his  illustrious  father.  Even  from  boy- 
hood he  bent  all  his  energy  to  this  one  great  purpose. 
He  went  straight  from  college  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. In  one  year  he  was  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer; two  years  later  he  was  Prime  Minister  of 
England,  and  reigned  virtually  king  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  He  was  utterly  oblivious  of  everything  out- 
side his  aim ;  insensible  to  the  claims  of  love,  art,  liter- 
ature, living  and  steadily  working  for  the  sole  purpose 
of  wielding  the  governing  power  of  the  nation.  His 
whole  soul  was  absorbed  in  the  overmastering  passion 
for  political  power. 

"Consider,  my  lord,"  said  Rowland  Hill  to  the  Prime 
Minister  of  England,  "  that  a  letter  to  Ireland  and  the 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM.  121 

answer  back  would  cost  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
my  affectionate  countrymen  more  than  a  fifth  of  their 
week's  wages.  If  you  shut  the  post  office  to  them, 
which  you  do  now,  you  shut  out  warm  hearts  and  gen- 
erous affections  from  home,  kindred,  and  friends."  The 
lad  learned  that  it  cost  to  carry  a  letter  from  London  to 
Edinburgh,  four  hundred  and  four  miles,  one  eighteenth 
of  a  cent,  while  the  government  charged  for  a  simple 
folded  sheet  of  paper  twenty-eight  cents,  and  twice  as 
much  if  there  was  the  smallest  inclosure.  Against  the 
opposition  and  contempt  of  the  post-office  department 
he  at  length  carried  his  point,  and  on  January  10, 
1840,  penny  postage  was  established  throughout  Great 
Britain.  Mr.  Hill  was  chosen  to  introduce  the  system, 
at  a  salary  of  fifteen  hundred  pounds  a  year.  His 
success  was  most  encouraging,  but  at  the  end  of  two 
years  a  Tory  minister  dismissed  him  without  paying  for 
his  services,  as  agreed.  The  public  was  indignant,  and 
at  once  contributed  sixty-five  thousand  dollars ;  and,  at 
the  request  of  Queen  Victoria,  Parliament  voted  him 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  and  ten  thousand  dollars 
a  year  for  life. 

Christ  knew  that  one  affection  rules  in  man's  life 
when  he  said,  "  No  man  can  serve  two  masters."  One 
affection,  one  object,  will  be  supreme  in  us.  Everything 
else  will  be  neglected  and  done  with  half  a  heart.  One 
may  have  subordinate  plans,  but  he  can  have  but  one 
supreme  aim,  and  from  this  aim  all  others  will  take 
their  character. 

It  is  a  great  purpose  which  gives  meaning  to  life ;  it 
unifies  all  our  powers,  binds  them  together  in  one 
cable ;  makes  strong  and  united  what  was  weak,  sepa- 
rated, scattered. 

"Painting  is  my  wife  and  my  works  are  my  chil- 
dren," replied  Michael  Angelo  when  asked  why  he  did 
not  marry. 

"  Smatterers "  are   weak   and   superficial.     Of  what 


122  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

use  is  a  man  who  knows  a  little  of  everything  and  not 
much  of  anything  ?  It  is  the  momentum  of  constantly 
repeated  acts  that  tells  the  story.  "Let  thine  eyes 
look  straight  before  thee.  Ponder  the  path  of  thy  feet 
and  let  all  thy  ways  be  established.  Turn  not  to  the 
right  hand  nor  to  the  left."  One  great  secret  of  St. 
Paul's  power  lay  in  his  strong  purpose.  Nothing  could 
daunt  him,  nothing  intimidate.  The  Eoman  Emperor 
could  not  muzzle  him,  the  dungeon  could  not  aj^pall  him, 
no  prison  suppress  him,  obstacles  could  not  discourage 
him.  "  This  one  thing  I  do  "  was  written  all  over  his 
work.  The  quenchless  izeal  of  his  mighty  purpose 
burned  its  way  down  through  the  centuries,  and  its  con- 
tagion will  never  cease  to  fire  the  hearts  of  men. 

"Try  and  come  home  somebody,"  said  the  fond 
mother  to  Gambetta  as  she  sent  him  off  to  Paris  to 
school.  Poverty  pinched  this  lad  hard  in  his  little 
garret  study  and  his  clothes  were  shabby,  but  what  of 
that  ?  He  had  made  up  his  mind  to  get  on  in  the 
world.  For  years  this  youth  was  chained  to  his  desk 
and  worked  like  a  hero.  At  last  his  opportunity  came. 
Jules  Favre  was  to  plead  a  great  cause  on  a  certain 
day ;  but,  being  ill,  he  chose  this  young  man,  absolutely 
unknown,  rough  and  uncouth,  to  take  his  place.  For 
many  years  Gambetta  had  been  preparing  for  such  an 
opportunity,  and  he  was  equal  to  it,  for  he  made  one  of 
the  greatest  speeches  that  up  to  that  time  had  ever  been 
made  in  France.  That  night  all  the  papers  in  Paris 
were  sounding  the  praises  of  this  ragged,  uncouth 
Bohemian,  and  soon  all  France  recognized  him  as  the 
Eepublican  leader.  This  sudden  rise  was  not  due  to 
luck  or  accident.  He  had  been  steadfastly  working 
and  fighting  his  way  up  against  opposition  and  poverty 
for  just  such  an  occasion.  Had  he  not  been  equal  to 
it,  it  would  only  have  made  him  ridiculous.  What 
a  stride  ;  yesterday,  poor  and  unknown,  living  in  a 
garret;  to-day,  deputy  elect,  in  the  city  of  Marseilles, 


ONE   UNWAVERING  AIM,  123 

and  the  great  Eepublican  leader !  The  gossipers  of 
France  had  never  heard  his  name  before.  He  had  been 
expelled  from  the  priest-making  seminary  as  totally 
unfit  for  a  priest  and  an  utterly  undisciplinable  charac- 
ter. In  two  weeks,  this  ragged  son  of  an  Italian  grocer 
arose  in  the  Chamber,  and  moved  that  the  Napoleon 
dynasty  be  disposed  of  and  the  Republic  be  declared 
established. 

When  Louis  Napoleon  had  been  defeated  at  Sedan 
and  had  delivered  his  sword  to  William  of  Prussia,  and 
when  the  Prussian  army  was  marching  on  Paris,  the 
brave  Gambetta  went  out  of  the  besieged  city  in  a 
balloon  barely  grazed  by  the  Prussian  guns,  landed  in 
Amiens,  and  by  almost  superhuman  skill  raised  three 
armies  of  800,000  men,  provided  for  their  maintenance, 
and  directed  their  military  operations.  A  German  offi- 
cer said,  "  This  colossal  energy  is  the  most  remark- 
able event  of  modern  history,  and  will  carry  down 
Gambetta's  name  to  remote  posterity."  This  youth 
who  was  poring  over  his  books  in  an  attic  while  other 
youths  were  promenading  the  Champs  Elysees,  although 
but  thirty-two  years  old,  was  now  virtually  dictator  of 
France,  and  the  greatest  orator  in  the  Republic.  What 
a  striking  example  of  the  great  reserve  of  personal 
power,  which,  even  in  dissolute  lives,  is  sometimes 
called  out  by  a  great  emergency  or  sudden  sorrow,  and 
ever  after  leads  the  life  to  victory !  AVhen  Gambetta 
found  that  his  first  speech  had  electrified  all  France, 
his  great  reserve  rushed  to  the  front,  he  was  suddenly 
weaned  from  dissipation,  and  resolved  to  make  his 
mark  in  the  world.  Nor  did  he  lose  his  head  in  his 
quick  leap  into  fame.  He  still  lived  in  the  upper  room 
in  the  mnsty  Latin  quarter,  and  remained  a  poor  man, 
without  stain  of  dishonor,  though  he  might  easily  have 
made  himself  a  millionaire.  When  Gambetta  died  the 
"  Figaro "  said,  "  The  Republic  has  lost  its  greatest 
man."    American  boys  should  study  this  great  man,  for 


124  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

he  loved  our  country,  and  made  our  Kepublic  the  pat- 
tern for  France. 

There  is  no  grander  sight  in  the  world  than  that  of 
a  young  man  fired  with  a  great  purpose,  dominated  by 
one  unwavering  aim.  He  is  bound  to  win ;  the  world 
stands  one  side  and  lets  him  pass  ;  it  always  makes 
way  for  the  man  with  a  will  in  him.  He  does  not  have 
one  half  the  opposition  to  overcome  that  the  undecided, 
purposeless  man  has  who,  like  driftwood,  runs  against 
all  sorts  of  snags  to  which  he  must  yield,  because  he 
has  no  momentum  to  force  them  out  pf  his  way.  What 
a  sublime  spectacle  it  is  to  see  a  youth  going  straight 
to  his  goal,  cutting  his  way  through  difficulties,  and  sur- 
mounting obstacles,  which  dishearten  others,  as  though 
they  were  but  stepping-stones  !  Defeat,  like  a  gymna- 
sium, only  gives  him  new  power;  opposition  only 
doubles  his  exertions ;  dangers  only  increase  his  cour- 
age. No  matter  what  comes  to  him,  sickness,  poverty, 
disaster,  he  never  turns  his  eye  from  his  goal. 
"  Duos  qui  sequitur  lepores,  neutrum  capit." 


VICTOR    HUGO      " 
"  Every  one  is  the  son  of  his  own  works." 
"  Cast  forth  thy  act,  thy  word,  into  the  ever-living,  ever-working  universe  :  it  is 
a  seed-grain  that  cannot  die."' 


CHAPTER  VIT. 

SOWING    AND    REAPING. 

Be  not  deceived ;  God  is  not  mocked :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap.  —  Galatians. 

Sow  an  act,  and  you  reap  a  habit;  sow  a  habit,  and  you  reap  a  charac- 
ter; sow  a  character,  and  you  reap  a  destiny.  —  G.  D.  Boardman. 

Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  's  inclined.  —  Pope. 

How  use  doth  breed  a  habit  in  a  man.  —  Shakespeare. 

All  habits  gather,  by  unseen  degrees, 

As  brooks  make  rivers,  rivers  run  to  seas.  Dryden. 

Infinite  good  comes  from  good  habits  which  must  result  from  the  com- 
mon influence  of  example,  intercourse,  knowledge,  and  actual  experience 
—  morality  taught  by  good  morals.  —  Plato. 

The  chains  of  habit  are  generally  too  small  to  be  felt  till  they  are  too 
strong  to  be  broken.  —  Samuel  Johnson. 

Man  is  first  startled  by  sin;  then  it  becomes  pleasing,  then  easy,  then 
delightful,  then  frequent,  then  habitual,  then  confirmed.     Then  man   is 
impenitent,  then  obstinate,  then  he  is  damned.  — Jeremy  Taylor. 
*'  Rogues  differ  little.    Each  began  as  a  disobedient  son." 
In  the  great  majority  of   things,  habit  is  a  greater  plague  than  ever 
afflicted  Egypt.  — John  Foster. 

You  cannot  in  any  given  case,  by  any  sudden  and  single  effort,  will  to 
be  true  if  the  habit  of  your  life  has  been  insincere.  —  F.  W.  Robertson. 
The  tissue  of  the  life  to  be, 

We  weave  with  colors  all  our  own; 
And  in  the  field  of  destiny, 

We  reap  as  we  have  sown.  Whittier, 

"Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  jon  will  now  consider 
your  verdict,"  said  the  great  lawyer.  Lord  Tenterden, 
as  he  roused  from  his  lethargy  a  moment,  and  then 
closed  his  eyes  forever.  "  Tete  d'armee  "  (head  of  the 
army),  murmured  Napoleon  faintly ;  and  then,  "  on  the 
wings  of  a  tempest  that  raged  with  unwonted  fury,  up 
to  the  throne  of  the  only  power  that  controlled  him 


126  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

while  he  lived,  went  the  fiery  soul  of  that  wonderful 
warrior.'^  "Give  Dayrolles  a  chair,"  said  the  dying 
Chesterfield  with  his  old-time  courtesy,  and  the  next 
moment  his  spirit  spread  its  wings.  "Young  man, 
keep  your  record  clean,"  thrilled  from  the  lips  of  John 
B.  Gough  as  he  sank  to  rise  no  more.  What  power 
over  the  mind  of  man  is  exercised  by  the  dominant 
idea  of  his  life  "that  parts  not  quite  with  parting 
breath ! "  It  has  shaped  his  purpose  throughout  his 
earthly  career,  and  he  passes  into  the  Great  Unknown, 
moving  in  the  direction  of  his  ideal;  impelled  still, 
amid  the  utter  retrocession  of  the  vital  force,  by  all 
the  momentum  resulting  from  his  weight  of  character 
and  singleness  of  aim. 

"It  is  a  beautiful  arrangement  in  the  mental  and 
moral  economy  of  our  nature,  that  that  which  is  per- 
formed as  a  duty  may,  by  frequent  repetitions,  become 
a  habit,  and  the  habit  of  stern  virtue,  so  repulsive  to 
others,  may  hang  around  the  neck  like  a  wreath  of 
flowers." 

Cholera  appeared  mysteriously  in  Toulon,  and,  after 
a  careful  examination,  the  medical  inspectors  learned 
that  the  first  victims  were  two  sailors  on  the  Mon- 
tebello,  a  government  transport,  long  out  of  service, 
anchored  at  the  entrance  to  the  port.  For  many  years 
the  vessel  had  been  used  for  storing  old,  disused  mili- 
tary equipments.  Some  of  these  had  belonged  to  French 
soldiers  who  had  died  before  Sebastopol.  The  doctors 
learned  that  the  two  poor  sailors  were  seized,  suddenly 
and  mortally,  a  few  days  after  displacing  a  pile  of 
equipments  stored  deep  in  the  hold  of  the  Montebello. 
The  cholera  of  Toulon  came  in  a  direct  line  from  the 
hospital  of  Varna.  It  went  to  sleep,  apparently  gorged, 
on  a  heap  of  the  cast-off  garments  of  its  victims,  to 
awaken  thirty  years  later  to  victorious  and  venomous 
life. 

Professor   Bonelli,  of   Turin,  punctured    an   animal 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  127 

with  the  tooth  of  a  rattlesnake.  The  head  of  this  ser- 
pent had  lain  in  a  dry  state  for  sixteen  years  exposed 
to  the  air  and  dust,  and,  moreover,  had  previously  been 
preserved  more  than  thirty  years  in  spirits  of  wine. 
To  his  great  astonishment  an  hour  afterward  the  ani- 
mal died.  So  habits,  good  or  bad,  that  have  been  lost 
sight  of  for  years  will  s^^ring  into  a  new  life  to  aid  or 
injure  us  at  some  critical  moment,  as  kernels  of  wheat 
which  had  been  clasped  in  a  mummy's  hand  four  thou- 
sand years  sprang  into  life  when  planted.  They  only 
awaited  moisture,  heat,  sunlight,  and  air  to  develop 
them. 

In  Jefferson's  play.  Rip  Van  Winkle,  after  he  had 
"  sworn  off,"  at  every  invitation  to  drink  said,  "  Well, 
this  time  don't  count."  True,  as  Professor  James  says, 
he  may  not  have  counted  it,  as  thousands  of  others 
have  not  counted  it,  and  a  kind  heaven  may  not  count 
it,  but  it  is  being  counted  none  the  less.  Down  among 
his  nerve  cells  and  fibres  the  molecules  are  counting  it, 
registering  and  storing  it  up  to  be  used  against  him 
when  the  next  temptation  comes.  Nothing  we  ever  do 
is  in  strict  scientific  literalness  wiped  out.  There  is  a 
tendency  in  the  nervous  system  to  repeat  the  same 
mode  of  action  at  regularly  recurring  intervals.  Dr. 
Combe  says  that  all  nervous  diseases  have  a  marked 
tendency  to  observe  regular  periods.  "  If  we  repeat 
any  kind  of  mental  effort  at  the  same  hour  daily,  we  at 
length  find  ourselves  entering  upon  it  without  premedi- 
tation when  the  time  approaches." 

"The  great  thing  in  all  education  is  to  make  our 
nervous  system  our  ally  instead  of  our  enemy.  It  is 
to  fund  and  capitalize  our  acquisition,  and  live  at  ease 
upon  the  interest  of  the  fund.  For  this  we  must  make 
automatic  and  habitual,  as  soon  as  possible,  as  many 
useful  actions  as  we  can,  and  guard  against  the  growing 
into  ways  that  are  likely  to  be  disadvantageous  to  us,  as 
we  would  guard  against  the  plague." 


128  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE, 

The  nervous  system  is  a  living  phonograph,  infinitely- 
more  marvelous  than  that  of  Edison.  No  sound,  how- 
ever feeble,  however  slight,  can  escape  being  recorded 
in  its  wonderful  mechanism.  Although  the  molecules 
of  this  living  machine  may  all  be  entirely  changed 
many  times  during  a  lifetime,  yet  these  impressions  are 
never  erased  or  lost.  They  become  forever  fixed  in  the 
character.  Like  Eip  Van  Winkle,  the  youth  may  say 
to  himself,  I  will  do  this  just  once  "just  to  see  what  it 
is  like,"  no  one  will  ever  know  it,  and  "  I  won't  count 
this  time."  The  country  youth  says  it  when  he  goes 
to  the  city.  The  young  man  says  it  when  he  drinks 
"  just  to  be  social."  Americans,  who  are  good  church 
people  at  home,  say  it  when  in  Paris  and  Vienna.  Yes, 
"  just  to  see  what  it  is  like  "  has  ruined  many  a  noble 
life.  Many  a  man  has  lost  his  balance  and  fallen  over 
the  precipice  into  the  sink  of  iniquity  while  just 
attempting  "  to  see  what  it  was  like."  "  If  you  have 
been  pilot  on  these  waters  twenty-five  years,"  said  a 
young  man  to  the  captain  of  a  steamer,  "  you  must 
know  every  rock  and  sandbank  in  the  river."  "  jSTo,  I 
don't,  but  I  know  where  the  deep  water  is." 

Just  one  little  lie  to  help  me  out  of  this  difficulty ; 
"I  won't  count  this."  Just  one  little  embezzlement; 
no  one  will  know  it,  and  I  can  return  the  money  before 
it  will  be  needed.  Just  one  little  indulgence  ;  I  won't 
count  it,  and  a  good  night's  sleep  will  make  me  all 
right  again.  Just  one  small  part  of  my  work  slighted ; 
it  won't  make  any  great  difference,  and,  besides,  I  am 
usually  so  careful  that  a  little  thing  like  this  ought  not 
to  be  counted. 

But,  my  young  friend,  it  will  be  counted,  whether 
you  will  or  not ;  the  deed  has  been  recorded  with  an 
iron  pen,  even  to  the  smallest  detail.  The  Eecording 
Angel  is  no  myth  ;  it  is  found  in  ourselves.  Its  name 
is  Memory,  and  it  holds  everything.  We  think  we 
have  forgotten  thousands  of  things  until  mortal  danger, 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  129 

fever,  or  some  other  great  stimulus  reproduces  tliem  to 
the  consciousness  with  all  the  fidelity  of  photographs. 
Sometimes  all  one's  past  life  will  seem  to  pass  before 
him  in  an  instant ;  but  at  all  times  it  is  really,  although 
unconsciously,  passing  before  him  in  the  sentiments  he 
feels,  in  the  thoughts  he  thinks,  in  the  impulses  that 
move  him  apparently  without  cause. 

*•  Our  acts  our  angels  are,  or  good  or  ill, 
Our  fatal  shadows  that  walk  by  us  still." 

In  a  fable  one  of  the  Fates  spun  filaments  so  fine 
that  they  were  invisible,  and  she  became  a  victim  of 
her  cunning,  for  she  was  bound  to  the  spot  by  these 
very  threads. 

Father  Schoenmaker,  missionary  to  the  Indians,  tried 
for  years  to  implant  civilization  among  the  wild  tribes. 
After  fifteen  years'  labor  he  induced  a  chief  to  lay  aside 
his  blanket,  the  token  of  savagery ;  but  he  goes  on  to 
say,  "  It  took  fifteen  years  to  get  it  off,  and  just  fifteen 
minutes  to  get  it  on  him  again." 

Physiologists  say  that  dark-colored  stripes  similar  to 
those  on  the  zebra  reappear,  after  a  hundred  or  a  thou- 
sand generations,  on  the  legs  and  shoulders  of  horses, 
asses,  and  mules.  Large  birds  on  sea  islands  where 
there  are  no  beasts  to  molest  them  lose  the  power  of 
flight. 

After  a  criminal's  head  had  been  cut  off  his  breast 
was  irritated,  and  he  raised  his  hands  several  times  as  if 
to  brush  away  the  exciting  cause.  It  was  said  that  the 
cheek  of  Charlotte  Corday  blushed  on  being  struck  by 
a  rude  soldier  after  the  head  had  been  severed  from  the 
body. 

Humboldt  found  in  South  America  a  parrot  which 
was  the  only  living  creature  that  could  speak  a  word  of 
the  language  of  a  lost  tribe.  The  bird  retained  the 
habit  of  speech  after  his  teachers  had  died. 

Caspar  Hauser  was  confined,  probably  from  birth,  in 
a  dungeon  where  no  light  or   sound   from   the   outer 


130  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

world  could  reach  liim.  At  seventeen  lie  was  still  a 
mental  infant,  crying  and  chattering  without  much 
ajjparent  intelligence.  When  released,  the  light  was 
disagreeable  to  his  eyes ;  and,  after  the  babbling  youth 
had  been  taught  to  speak  a  few  words,  he  begged  to  be 
taken  back  to  the  dungeon.  Only  cold  and  dismal 
silence  seemed  to  satisfy  him.  All  that  gave  pleasure 
to  others  gave  his  perverted  senses  only  pain.  The 
sweetest  music  was  a  source  of  anguish  to  him,  and  he 
could  eat  only  his  black  crust  without  violent  vomiting. 

Deep  in  the  very  nature  of  animate  existence  is  that 
principle  of  facility  and  inclination,  acquired  by  repeti- 
tion, which  we  call  habit.  Man  becomes  a  slave  to  his 
constantly  repeated  acts.  In  spite  of  the  protests  of  his 
weakened  will  the  trained  nerves  continue  to  repeat  the 
acts  even  when  the  doer  abhors  them.  What  he  at 
first  chooses,  at  last  compels.  Man  is  as  irrevocably 
chained  to  his  deeds  as  the  atoms  are  chained  by  gravi- 
tation. You  can  as  easily  snatch  a  pebble  from  gravita- 
tion's grasp  as  you  can  separate  the  minutest  act  of  life 
from  its  inevitable  effect  upon  character  and  destiny. 
"  Children  may  be  strangled,"  says  George  Eliot,  "  but 
deeds  never,  they  have  an  indestructible  life."  The 
smirched  youth  becomes  the  tainted  man. 

Practically  all  the  achievements  of  the  human  race 
are  but  the  accomplishments  of  habit.  We  speak  of 
the  power  of  Gladstone  to  accomplish  so  much  in  a  day 
as  something  marvelous ;  but  when  we  analyze  that 
power  we  find  it  composed  very  largely  of  the  results 
of  habit.  His  mighty  momentum  has  been  rendered 
possible  only  by  the  law  of  the  power  of  habit.  He  is 
now  a  great  bundle  of  habits,  which  all  his  life  have 
been  forming.  His  habit  of  industry  no  doubt  was  irk- 
some and  tedious  at  first,  but,  practiced  so  conscien- 
tiously and  persistently,  it  has  gained  such  momentum 
as  to  astonish  the  world.  His  habit  of  thinking,  close, 
persistent,  and  strong,  has  made   him  a  power.     He 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  131 

formed  the  habit  of  accurate,  keen  observation,  allowing 
nothing  to  escape  his  attention,  until  he  could  observe 
more  in  half  a  day  in  London  than  a  score  of  men  who 
have  eyes  but  see  not.  Thus  he  has  multiplied  him- 
self many  times.  By  this  habit  of  accuracy  he  has 
avoided  many  a  repetition;  and  so,  during  his  life- 
time, he  has  saved  years  of  precious  time,  which  many 
others,  who  marvel  at  his  achievements,  have  thrown 
away. 

Gladstone  early  formed  the  habit  of  cheerfulness,  of 
looking  on  the  bright  side  of  things,  which,  Sydney 
Smith  says,  "is  worth  a  thousand  pounds  a  year." 
This  again  has  saved  him  enormous  waste  of  energy,  as 
he  tells  us  he  has  never  yet  been  kept  awake  a  single 
hour  by  any  debate  or  business  in  Parliament.  This 
loss  of  energy  has  wasted  years  of  many  a  useful  life, 
which  might  have  been  saved  by  forming  the  economiz- 
ing habit  of  cheerfulness. 

The  habit  of  happy  thought  would  transform  the 
commonest  life  into  harmony  and  beauty.  The  will 
is  almost  omnipotent  to  determine  habits  which  virtu- 
ally are  omnipotent.  The  habit  of  directing  a  firm 
and  steady  will  upon  those  things  which  tend  to  pro- 
duce harmony  of  thought  would  produce  happiness 
and  contentment  even  in  the  most  lowly  occupations. 
The  will,  rightly  drilled,  can  drive  out  all  discordant 
thoughts,  and  produce  a  reign  of  perpetual  harmony. 
Our  trouble  is  that  we  do  not  half  will.  After  a  man's 
habits  are  well  set,  about  all  he  can  do  is  to  sit  by  and 
observe  which  way  he  is  going.  Kegret  it  as  he  may, 
how  helpless  is  a  weak  man  bound  by  the  mighty  cable 
of  habit,  twisted  from  the  tiny  threads  of  single  acts 
which  he  thought  were  absolutely  within  his  control ! 

Drop  a  stone  down  a  precipice.  By  the  law  of  gravita- 
tion it  sinks  with  rapidly  increasing  momentum.  If  it 
falls  sixteen  feet  the  first  second,  it  will  fall  forty-eight 
feet  the  next  second,  and  eighty  feet  the  third  second, 


132  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

and  one  hundred  and  forty-four  feet  the  fifth  second, 
and  if  it  falls  for  ten  seconds  it  will  in  the  last  second  rush 
through  three  hundred  and  four  feet  till  earth  stops  it. 
Habit  is  cumulative.  After  each  act  of  our  lives  we  are 
not  the  same  person  as  before,  but  quite  another,  better 
or  worse,  but  not  the  same.  There  has  been  something 
added  to,  or  deducted  from,  our  weight  of  character. 

"  There  is  no  fault  nor  folly  of  my  life,"  said  Euskin, 
"that  does  not  rise  against  me  and  take  away  my  joy, 
and  shorten  my  power  of  possession,  of  sight,  of  under- 
standing ;  and  every  past  effort  of  my  life,  every  gleam 
of  righteousness  or  good  in  it,  is  with  me  now  to  help 
me  in  my  grasp  of  this  hour  and  its  vision." 

"  Many  men  of  genius  have  written  worse  scrawls 
than  I  do,"  said  a  boy  at  Rugby  when  his  teacher  re- 
monstrated with  him  for  his  bad  penmanship ;  "  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  worry  about  so  trivial  a  fault."  Ten 
years  later,  when  he  had  become  an  officer  in  the  Crimea, 
his  illegible  copy  of  an  order  caused  the  loss  of  many 
brave  men. 

"  Eesist  beginning  "  was  an  ancient  motto  which  is 
needed  in  our  day.  The  folly  of  the  child  becomes  the 
vice  of  the  youth,  and  then  the  crime  of  the  man. 

In  1880  one  hundred  and  forty-seven  of  the  eight  hun- 
dred and  ninety-seven  inmates  of  Auburn  State  Prison 
were  there  on  a  second  visit.  What  brings  the  prisoner 
back  the  second,  third,  or  fourth  time  ?  It  is  habit 
which  drives  him  on  to  commit  the  deed  which  his  heart 
abhors  and  which  his  very  soul  loathes.  It  is  the  mo- 
mentum made  up  from  a  thousand  deviations  from  the 
truth  and  right,  for  there  is  a  great  difference  between 
going  just  right  and  a  little  wrong.  It  is  the  result  of 
that  mysterious  power  which  the  repeated  act  has  of 
getting  itself  repeated  again  and  again. 

AVhen  a  woman  was  dying  from  the  effects  of  her  hus- 
band's cruelty  and  debauchery  from  drink  she  asked 
him  to  come  to  her  bedside,  and  pleaded  with  him  again 


SOWIXG  AND  REAPING.  133 

for  the  sake  of  their  chiklren  to  drink  no  more.  Grasp- 
ing his  hand  with  her  thin,  long  fingers,  she  made  him 
promise  her  :  "  Mary,  I  will  drink  no  more  till  I  take  it 
out  of  this  hand  which  I  hold  in  mine."  That  very  night 
he  poured  out  a  tumbler  of  brandy,  stole  into  the  room 
where  she  lay  cold  in  her  coffin,  put  the  tumbler  into 
her  withered  hand,  and  then  took  it  out  and  drained  it 
to  the  bottom.  John  B.  Gough  told  this  as  a  true  story. 
How  powerless  a  man  is  in  the  presence  of  a  mighty 
habit,  which  has  robbed  him  of  will-power,  of  self- 
respect,  of  everything  manly,  until  he  becomes  its 
slave ! 

Walpole  tells  of  a  gambler  who  fell  at  the  table  in  a 
fit  of  apoplexy,  and  his  companions  began  to  bet  upon 
his  chances  of  recovery.  When  the  physician  came 
they  refused  to  let  him  bleed  the  man  because  they 
said  it  would  affect  the  bet.  When  President  Garfield 
was  hanging  between  life  and  death  men  bet  heavily 
upon  the  issue,  and  even  sold  pools. 

Xo  disease  causes  greater  horror  or  dread  than  chol- 
era ;  yet  when  it  is  once  fastened  upon  a  victim  he  is 
perfectly  indifferent,  and  wonders  at  the  solicitude  of 
his  friends.  His  tears  are  dried;  he  cannot  weep  if 
he  would.  His  body  is  cold  and  clammy  and  feels 
like  dead  flesh,  yet  he  tells  you  he  is  warm,  and  calls 
for  ice  water.  Have  you  never  seen  similar  insensi- 
bility to  danger  in  those  whose  habits  are  already  drag- 
ging them  to  everlasting  death  ? 

Etherized  by  the  fascinations  of  pleasure,  we  are 
often  unconscious  of  pain  while,  the  devil  amputates 
the  fingers,  the  feet  and  hands,  or  even  the  arms  and 
legs  of  our  character.  But  oh,  the  anguish  that  visits 
the  sad  heart  when  the  lethe  passes  away,  and  the  soul 
becomes  conscious  of  virtue  sacrificed,  of  manhood  lost. 

The  leper  is  often  the  last  to  suspect  his  danger,  for 
the  disease  is  painless  in  its  early  stages.  A  leading 
lawyer  and  public  official  in  the  Sandwich  Islands  once 


134  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

overturned  a  lighted  lamp  on  his  hand,  and  was  sur- 
prised to  find  that  it  caused  no  pain.  At  last  it  dawned 
upon  his  mind  that  he  was  a  leper.  He  resigned  his 
offices  and  went  to  the  leper's  island,  where  he  died. 
So  sin  in  its  early  stages  is  not  only  painless  but  often 
even  pleasant. 

The  hardening,  deadening  power  of  depraving  habits 
and  customs  was  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  Komans. 

Under  Nero,  the  taste  of  the  people  had  become  so 
debauched  and  morbid  that  no  mere  representation  of 
tragedy  would  satisfy  them.  Their  cold-blooded  sel- 
fishness, the  hideous  realism  of  "  a  refined,  delicate,  aes- 
thetic age,"  demanded  that  the  heroes  should  actually 
be'  killed  on  the  stage.  The  debauched  and  sanguinary 
Romans  reckoned  life  worthless  without  the  most  thrill- 
ing experiences  of  horror  or  delight.  Tragedy  must  be 
genuine  bloodshed,  comedy,  actual  shame.  When  "  The 
Conflagration"  was  represented  on  the  stage  they  de- 
manded that  a  house  be  actually  burned  and  the  furni- 
ture plundered.  When  "  Laureolus  "  Avas  played  they 
demanded  that  the  actor  be  really  crucified  and  man- 
gled by  a  bear,  and  he  had  to  fling  himself  down  and 
deluge  the  stage  with  his  own  blood.  Prometheus  must 
be  really  chained  to  his  rock,  and  Dirce  in  very  fact  be 
tossed  and  gored  by  the  wild  bull,  and  Orpheus  be  torn 
to  pieces  by  a  real  bear,  and  Icarus  was  compelled  to 
fly,  even  though  it  was  known  he  Avould  be  dashed  to 
death.  When  the  heroism  of  "  Mucins  Scsevola "  was 
represented,  a  real  criminal  was  compelled  to  thrust 
his  hand  into  the  flame  without  a  murmur,  and  stand 
motionless  while  it  was  being  burned.  Hercules  was 
compelled  to  ascend  the  funeral  pyre,  and  there  be 
burned  alive.  The  poor  slaves  and  criminals  were  com- 
pelled to  play  their  parts  heroically  until  the  flames 
enveloped  them. 

The  pirate  Gibbs,  who  Avas  executed  in  New  York, 
said  that  when  he  robbed  the  first  vessel  his  conscience 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  135 

made  a  hell  in  liis  bosom ;  but  after  lie  liad  sailed  for 
years  under  the  black  flag,  he  could  rob  a  vessel  and 
murder  all  the  crew,  and  lie  down  and  sleep  soundly. 
A  man  may  so  accustom  himself  to  error  as  to  be- 
come its  most  devoted  slave,  and  be  led  to  commit  the 
most  fearful  crimes  in  order  to  defend  it,  or  to  prop- 
agate it. 

When  Gordon,  the  celebrated  California  stage-driver, 
was  dying,  he  put  his  foot  out  of  the  bed  and  swung  it 
to  and  fro.  When  asked  why  he  did  so,  he  replied,  "  I 
am  on  the  down  grade  and  cannot  get  my  foot  on  the 
brake." 

In  our  great  museums  you  see  stone  slabs  with  the 
marks  of  rain  that  fell  hundreds  of  years  before  Adam 
lived,  and  the  footprint  of  some  wild  bird  that  passed 
across  the  beach  in  those  olden  times.  The  passing 
shower  and  the  light  foot  left  their  prints  on  the  soft 
sediment ;  then  ages  went  on,  and  the  sediment  hard- 
ened into  stone  ;  and  there  the  prints  remain,  and  will 
remain  forever.  So  the  child,  so  soft,  so  susceptible  to 
all  impressions,  so  joyous  to  receive  new  ideas,  treas- 
ures them  all  up,  gathers  them  all  into  itself,  and  re- 
tains them  forever. 

A  tribe  of  Indians  attacked  a  white  settlement  and 
murdered  the  few  inhabitants.  A  woman  of  the  tribe, 
however,  carried  away  a  very  young  infant,  and  reared 
it  as  her  own.  The  child  grew  up  with  the  Indian 
children,  different  in  complexion,  but  like  them  in 
everything  else.  To  scalp  the  greatest  possible  number 
of  enemies  was,  in  his  view,  the  most  glorious  thing  in 
the  world.  While  he  was  still  a  "youth  he  was  seen  by 
some  white  traders,  and  by  them  conducted  back  to 
civilized  life.  He  showed  great  relish  for  his  new  life, 
and  especially  a  strong  desire  for  knowledge  and  a 
sense  of  reverence  which  took  the  direction  of  religion, 
so  that  he  desired  to  become  a  clergyman.  He  went 
through   his  college   course  with   credit,  and  was   or- 


136  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

dained.  lie  fullilled  his  function  well,  and  appeared 
happy  and  satisfied.  After  a  few  years  he  went  to 
serve  in  a  settlement  somewhere  near  the  seat  of  war 
which  was  then  going  on  between  Britain  and  the 
United  States,  and  before  long  there  was  fighting  not 
far  off.  He  went  forth  in  his  usual  dress  —  black  coat 
and  neat  white  shirt  and  neckcloth.  When  he  returned 
he  was  met  by  a  gentleman  of  his  acquaintance,  who 
was  immediately  struck  by  an  extraordinary  change  in 
the  expression  of  his  face  and  the  flush  on  his  cheek, 
and  also  by  his  unusually  shy  and  hurried  manner. 
After  asking  news  of  the  battle  the  gentleman  observed, 
"  But  you  are  wounded  ?  "  "  No."  "  Xot  wounded  ! 
Why,  there  is  blood  upon  the  bosom  of  your  shirt !  " 
The  young  man  quickly  crossed  his  hands  firmly  upon 
his  breast ;  and  his  friend,  supposing  that  he  wished  to 
conceal  a  wound  which  ought  to  be  looked  to,  pulled 
open  his  shirt,  and  saw  —  what  made  the  young  man 
let  fall  his  hands  in  despair.  From  between  his  shirt 
and  his  breast  the  friend  took  out  —  a  bloody  scalp ! 
"I  could  not  help  it,"  said  the  poor  victim  of  early 
habits,  in  an  agonized  voice.  He  turned  and  ran,  too 
swiftly  to  be  overtaken,  betook  himself  to  the  Indians, 
and  never  more  appeared  among  the  whites. 

An  Indian  once  brought  up  a  young  lion,  and  finding 
him  weak  and  harmless,  did  not  attempt  to  control 
him.  Every  day  the  lion  gained  in  strength  and  be- 
came more  unmanageable,  until  at  last,  when  excited 
by  rage,  he  fell  upon  his  master  and  tore  him  to  pieces. 
So  what  seemed  to  be  an  "  innocent "  sin  has  grown 
until  it  strangled  him  who  was  once  its  easy  master. 

Beware  of  looking  at  sin,  for  at  each  view  it  is  apt  to 
become  better  looking. 

Habit  is  practically,  for  a  middle-aged  person,  fate  ; 
for  is  it  not  practically  certain  that  what  I  have  done 
for  twenty  years  I  shall  repeat  to-day  ?  What  are  the 
chances  for  a  man  who  has  been  lazy  and  indolent  all 


SOWING  AND  REAPING,  137 

his  life  starting  in  to-morrow  morning  to  be  indns- 
trious ;  or  a  spendthrift,  frugal ;  a  libertine,  virtuous ; 
a  profane,  foul-mouthed  man,  clean  and  chaste  ? 

A  Grecian  flute-player  charged  double  fees  for  pu- 
pils who  had  been  taught  by  inferior  masters,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  much  harder  to  undo  than  to  form 
habits. 

Habit  tends  to  make  us  permanently  what  we  are 
for  the  moment.  We  cannot  possibly  hear,  see,  feel,  or 
experience  anything  which  is  not  woven  in  the  web  of 
character.  What  we  are  this  minute  and  what  we  do 
this  minute,  what  we  think  this  minute,  will  be  read  in 
the  future  character  as  plainly  as  words  spoken  into 
the  phonograph  can  be  reproduced  in  the  future. 

"  The  air  itself,"  says  Babbage,  "  is  one  vast  library 
on  whose  pages  are  written  forever  all  that  man  has 
ever  said,  whispered,  or  done."  Every  sin  you  ever 
committed  becomes  your  boon  companion.  It  rushes 
to  your  lips  every  time  you  speak,  and  drags  its  hideous 
form  into  your  imagination  every  time  you  think.  It 
throws  its  shadow  across  your  path  whichever  way 
you  turn.  Like  Banquo's  ghost,  it  will  not  down.  You 
are  fastened  to  it  for  life,  and  it  will  cling  to  you  in 
the  vast  forever.  Do  you  think  yourself  free  ?  You 
are  a  slave  to  every  sin  you  ever  committed.  They 
follow  your  pen  and  work  their  own  character  into 
every  word  you  write. 

Rectitude  is  only  the  confirmed  habit  of  doing  what 
is  right.  Some  men  cannot  tell  a  lie  :  the  habit  of 
truth  telling  is  fixed,  it  has  become  incorporated  with 
their  nature.  Their  characters  bear  the  indelible  stamp 
of  veracity.  You  and  I  know  men  whose  slightest 
word  is  unimpeachable ;  nothing  could  shake  our  confi- 
dence in  them.  There  are  other  men  who  cannot  speak 
the  truth :  their  habitual  insincerity  has  made  a  twist 
in  their  characters,  and  this  twist  appears  in  their 
speech. 


138  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"I  never  in  my  life  committed  more  than  one  act  of 
folly,"  said  Rulhiere  one  day  in  the  presence  of  Talley- 
rand. "  But  where  will  it  end  ?  "  inquired  the  latter. 
It  was  lifelong.  One  mistake  too  many  makes  all  the 
difference  between  safety  and  destruction. 

How  many  men  would  like  to  go  to  sleep  beggars 
and  wake  up  Rothschilds  or  Astors  ?  How  many  would 
fain  go  to  bed  dunces  and  wake  up  Solomons  ?  You 
reap  what  you  have  sown.  Those  who  have  sown  dunce- 
seed,  vice-seed,  laziness-seed,  always  get  a  crop.  They 
that  sow  the  wind  shall  reap  the  whirlwind. 

Habit,  like  a  child,  repeats  whatever  is  done  before 
it.  Oh,  the  power  of  a  repeated  act  to  get  itself  repeated 
again  and  again  !  But,  like  the  wind,  it  is  a  power 
which  we  can  use  to  force  our  way  in  its  very  teeth  as 
does  the  ship,  and  thus  multiply  our  strength,  or  we  can 
drift  with  it  without  exertion  upon  the  rocks  and  shoals 
of  destruction. 

AVhat  a  great  thing  it  is  to  "start  right"  in  life. 
Every  young  man  can  see  that  the  first  steps  lead  to 
the  last,  with  all  except  his  own.  No,  his  little  pre- 
varications and  dodgings  will  not  make  him  a  liar,  but 
he  can  see  that  they  surely  will  in  John  Smithh  case. 
He  can  see  that  others  are  idle  and  on  the  road  to  ruin, 
but  cannot  see  it  in  his  own  case. 

There  is  a  wonderful  relation  between  bad  habits. 
They  all  belong  to  the  same  family.  If  you  take  in 
one,  no  matter  how  small  or  insignificant  it  may  seem, 
you  will  soon  have  the  whole.  A  man  who  has  formed 
the  habit  of  laziness  or  idleness  will  soon  be  late  at 
his  engagements ;  a  man  who  does  not  meet  his  engage- 
ments will  dodge,  apologize,  prevaricate,  and  lie.  I 
have  rarely  known  a  perfectly  truthful  man  who  was 
always  behind  time. 

You  have  seen  a  ship  out  in  the  bay  swinging  with 
the  tide  and  the  waves  ;  the  sails  are  all  up,  and  you 
wonder  why  it  does  not  move  ;  but  it  cannot,  for  down 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  139 

beneath  the  water  it  is  anchored.  So  we  often  see  a 
young  man  apparently  well  equipped,  well  educated, 
and  we  wonder  that  he  does  not  advance  toward  man- 
hood and  character.  But,  alas !  we  find  that  he  is  an- 
chored to  some  secret  vice,  and  he  can  never  advance 
until  he  cuts  loose. 

"  The  first  crime  past  compels  us  into  more, 
And  guilt  gxovi?,  fate  that  was  but  choice  before." 

"  Small  habits,  well  pursued  betimes. 
May  reach  the  dignity  of  crimes." 

Thousands  can  sympathize  with  David  when  he  cried, 
"  My  sins  have  taken  such  hold  upon  me  that  I  am 
notable  to  look  up;  my  heart  faileth  me."  Like  the 
damned  spot  of  blood  on  Lady  Macbeth's  hand,  these 
foul  spots  on  the  imagination  will  not  out.  What  a 
penalty  nature  exacts  for  physical  sins.  The  gods  are 
just,  and  "  of  our  pleasant  vices  make  instruments  to 
plague  us." 

Plato  wrote  over  his  door,  "  Let  no  one  ignorant  of 
geometry  enter  here."  The  greatest  value  of  the  study 
of  the  classics  and  mathematics  comes  from  the  habits 
of  accurate  and  concise  thought  which  it  induces.  The 
habit-forming  portion  of  life  is  the  dangerous  period, 
and  we  need  the  discipline  of  close  a]3plication  to  hold 
us  outside  of  our  studies. 

Washington  at  thirteen  wrote  one  hundred  and  ten 
maxims  of  civility  and  good  behavior,  and  was  most 
careful  in  the  formation  of  all  habits.  Franklin,  too, 
devised  a  plan  of  self-improvement  and  character  build- 
ing. No  doubt  the  noble  characters  of  these  two  men, 
almost  superhuman  in  their  excellence,  are  the  natural 
result  of  their  early  care  and  earnest  striving  towards 
perfection. 

Fielding,  describing  a  game  of  cards  between  Jona- 
than Wild,  of  pilfering  propensities,  and  a  professional 
gambler,  says  :  "  Such  was  the  power  of  habit  over  the 
minds  of  these  illustrious  persons,  that  Mr.  Wild  could 


140  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

not  keep  his  hands  out  of  the  counVs  pockets,  though 
he  knew  they  were  empty ;  nor  could  the  count  abstain 
from  palming  a  card,  though  he  was  well  aware  Mr. 
Wild  had  no  money  to  pay  him." 

"Habit,"  says  Montaigne,  "  is  a  violent  and  treacher- 
ous schoolmistress.  She,  by  little  and  little,  slyly  and 
unperceived,  slips  in  the  foot  of  her  authority,  but  hav- 
ing by  this  gentle  and  humble  beginning,  with  the  aid  of 
time,  fixed  and  established  it,  she  then  unmasks  a  furi- 
ous and  tyrannic  countenance  against  which  we  have  no 
more  the  courage  nor  the  power  so  much  as  to  lift  up 
our  eyes."  It  led  a  New  York  man  actually  to  cut  off 
his  hand  with  a  cleaver  under  a  test  of  what  he  would 
resort  to,  to  get  a  glass  of  whiskey.  It  has  led  thou- 
sands of  nature's  noblemen  to  drunkards'  and  libertines' 
graves. 

Gough's  life  is  a  startling  illustration  of  the  power  of 
habit,  and  of  the  ability  of  one  apparently  a  hopeless 
slave  to  break  his  fetters  and  walk  a  free  man  in  the 
sunlight  of  heaven.  He  came  to  America  when  nine 
years  old.  Possessed  of  great  powers  of  song,  of  mim- 
icry, and  of  acting,  and  exceedingly  social  in  his  tastes, 
a  thousand  temptations 

"Widened  and  strewed  with  flowers  the  way 
Down  to  eternal  ruin." 

"  I  would  give  this  right  hand  to  redeem  those  terri- 
ble seven  years  of  dissipation  and  death,"  he  would 
often  say  in  after  years  when,  with  his  soul  still  scarred 
and  battered  from  his  conflict  with  blighting  passion, 
he  tearfully  urged  young  men  to  free  themselves  from 
the  chains  of  bestial  habits. 

In  the  laboratory  of  Faraday  a  workman  one  day 
knocked  into  a  jar  of  acid  a  silver  cup  ;  it  disappeared, 
was  eaten  up  by  the  acid,  and  could  not  be  found.  The 
qviestion  came  up  whether  it  could  ever  be  found.  The 
great  chemist  came  in  and  put  certain  chemicals  into 
the  jar,  and   every  particle  of  the  silver  was  precipi- 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  141 

tated  to  the  bottom.  The  mass  was  then  sent  to  a  sil- 
versmith, and  the  cup  restored.  So  a  precious  youth 
who  has  fallen  into  the  sink  of  iniquity,  lost,  dissolved 
in  sin,  can  only  be  restored  by  the  Great  Chemist. 

What  is  put  into  the  first  of  life  is  put  into  the  whole 
of  life.  ''Out  of  a  church  of  twenty-seven  hundred 
members,  I  have  never  had  to  exclude  a  single  one  who 
was  received  while  a  child,"  said  Spurgeon.  It  is  the 
earliest  sin  that  exercises  the  most  influence  for  evil. 

Benedict  Arnold  was  the  only  general  in  the  Eevolu- 
tion  that  disgraced  his  country.  He  had  great  military 
talent,  wonderful  energy,  and  a  courage  equal  to  any 
emergency.  But  Arnold  did  not  start  right.  Even  when 
a  boy  he  was  despised  for  his  cruelty  and  his  selfish- 
ness. He  delighted  in  torturing  insects  and  birds  that 
he  might  watch  their  sufferings.  He  scattered  pieces 
of  glass  and  sharp  tacks  on  the  floor  of  the  shop  he  was 
tending,  to  cut  the  feet  of  the  barefooted  boys.  Even 
in  the  army,  in  spite  of  his  bravery,  the  soldiers  hated 
him,  and  the  officers  dared  not  trust  him. 

Let  no  man  trust  the  first  false  step 
Of  guilt;  it  hangs  upon  a  precipice, 
Whose  steep  descent  in  last  perdition  ends. 

Young. 

Years  ago  there  was  a  district  lying  near  Westmin- 
ster Abbey,  London,  called  the  "  Devil's  Acre,"  —  a 
school  for  vicious  habits,  where  depravity  was  univer- 
sal ;  where  professional  beggars  were  fitted  with  all  the 
appliances  of  imposture ;  where  there  was  an  agency 
for  the  hire  of  children  to  be  cari^ied  about  by  forlorn 
widows  and  deserted  wives,  to  move  the  compassion  of 
street-giving  benevolence ;  where  young  pickpockets 
were  trained  in  the  art  and  mystery  which  was  to  con- 
duct them  in  due  course  to  an  expensive  voyage  for  the 
good  of  their  country  to  Botany  Bay. 

Victor  Hugo  describes  a  strange  association  of  men  in 
the  seventeenth  century  who  bought  children  and  dis- 


142  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

torted  and  made  monstrosities  of  them  to  amuse  the 
nobility  with  ;  and  in  cultured  Boston  there  is  an  asso- 
ciation of  so-called  "  respectable  men,"  who  have  oj)ened 
thousands  of  "  places  of  business  "  for  deforming  men, 
women,  and  children's  souls.  But  we  deform  ourselves 
with  agencies  so  pleasant  that  we  think  we  are  having  a 
good  time,  until  we  become  so  changed  and  enslaved  that 
we  scarcely  recognize  ourselves.  Vice,  the  pleasant  guest 
which  we  first  invited  into  our  heart's  parlor,  becomes 
vulgarly  familiar,  and  intrenches  herself  deep  in  our  very 
being.  We  ask  her  to  leave,  but  she  simply  laughs  at 
us  from  the  hideous  wrinkles  she  has  made  in  our  faces, 
and  refuses  to  go.  Our  secret  sins  defy  us  from  the 
hideous  furrows  they  have  cut  in  our  cheeks.  Each  im- 
pure thought  has  chiseled  its  autograph  deep  into  the 
forehead,  too  deep  for  erasure ;  and  the  glassy,  bleary 
eye  adds  its  testimony  to  our  ruined  character. 

The  devil  does  not  apply  his  match  to  the  hard  coal ; 
but  he  first  lights  the  shavings  of  "  innocent  sins,"  and 
the  shavings  the  wood,  and  the  wood  the  coal.  Sin  is 
gradual.  It  does  not  break  out  on  a  man  until  it  has 
long  circulated  through  his  system.  Murder,  adultery, 
theft,  are  not  committed  in  deed  until  they  have  been 
committed  in  thought  again  and  again. 

"  Don't  write  there,"  said  a  man  to  a  boy  who  was 
writing  with  a  diamond  pin  on  a  pane  of  glass  in  the 
window  of  a  hotel.  "  Why  not  ?  "  inquired  the  boy. 
"  Because  you  can't  rub  it  out."  Yet  the  glass  might 
have  been  broken  and  all  trace  of  the  writing  lost,  but 
things  written  upon  the  human  soul  can  never  be  re- 
moved, for  the  tablet  is  immortal. 

"In  all  the  wide  range  of  accepted  British  maxims," 
said  Thomas  Hughes,  "  there  is  none,  take  it  all  in  all, 
more  thoroughly  abominable  than  this  one,  as  to  the 
sowing  of  wild  oats.  Look  at  it  on  what  side  you  will, 
and  I  defy  you  to  make  anything  but  a  devil's  maxim 
of  it.     What  man,  be  he   young,  old,  or  middle-aged, 


SOWING  AND  REAPING.  143 

sows,  that,  and  nothing  else,  shall  he  reap.  The  only 
thing  to  do  with  wild  oats  is  to  put  them  carefully  into 
the  hottest  part  of  the  hre,  and  get  them  burnt  to  dust, 
every  seed  of  them.  If  you  sow  them,  no  matter  in 
what  ground,  up  they  will  come  with  long,  tough  roots 
and  luxuriant  stalks  and  leaves,  as  sure  as  there  is  a 
sun  in  heave'n.  The  devil,  too,  whose  special  crop  they 
are,  will  see  that  they  thrive,  and  you,  and  nobody  else, 
will  have  to  reap  them." 

We  scatter  seeds  with  careless  hand, 

And  dream  we  ne'er  shall  see  them  more; 

But  for  a  thousand  years 

Their  fruit  appears, 

In  weeds  that  mar  the  land. 

John  Keble. 

Theodora  boasted  that  she  could  draw  Socrates'  disci- 
ples away  from  him.  "  That  may  be,"  said  the  philoso- 
pher, "  for  you  lead  them  down  an  easy  descent  whereas 
I  am  forcing  them  to  mount  to  virtue  —  an  arduous  as- 
cent and  unknown  to  most  men." 

"  When  I  am  told  of  a  sickly  student,"  said  Daniel 
Wise,  "  that  he  is  '  studying  himself  to  death,'  or  of  a 
feeble  young  mechanic,  or  clerk,  that  his  hard  work  is 
destroying  him,  I  study  his  countenance,  and  there,  too 
often,  read  the  real,  melancholy  truth  in  his  dull,  averted, 
sunken  eye,  discolored  skin,  and  timid  manner.  These 
signs  proclaim  that  the  young  man  is  in  some  way  vio- 
lating the  laws  of  his  physical  nature.  He  is  secretl}^ 
destroying  himself.  Yet,  say  his  unconscious  and  ad- 
miring friends,  ^  He  is  falling  a  victim  to  his  own  dili- 
gence ! '  Most  lame  and  impotent""  conclusion  !  He  is 
sapping  the  very  source  of  life,  and  erelong  will  be  a 
mind  in  ruins  or  a  heap  of  dust.  Young  man,  beware  of 
his  example  !  '  Keep  thyself  pure  ; '  observe  the  laws 
of  your  x^hysical  nature,  and  the  most  unrelaxing  indus- 
try will  never  rob  you  of  a  month's  health,  nor  shorten 
the  thread  of  your  life  ;  for  industry  and  health  are  com- 
panions, and  long  life  is  the  heritage  of  diligence." 


144  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"How  shall  I  a  habit  break  V  " 
As  you  did  that  habit  make. 
As  you  gathered,  you  must  lose  ; 
As  you  yielded,  now  refuse. 
Thread  by  thread  the  strands  we  twist 
Till  they  bind  us  neck  and  wrist. 
Thread  by  thread  the  patient  hand 
Must  untwine  ere  free  we  stand. 
As  we  builded,  stone  by  stone, 
"We  must  toil,  unhelped,  alone. 
Till  the  wall  is  overthrown. 

But  remember,  as  we  try, 
Lighter  every  test  goes  by; 
Wading  in,  the  stream  grows  deep 
Toward  the  centre's  downward  sweep; 
Backward  turn,  each  step  ashore 
Shallower  is  than  that  before. 

Ah,  the  precious  years  we  waste 
Leveling  what  we  raised  in  haste ; 
Doing  what  must  be  undone, 
Ere  content  or  love  be  won  ! 
First  across  the  gulf  we  cast 
Kite-borne  threads  till  lines  are  passed, 
And  habit  builds  the  bridge  at  last. 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly. 


JAMES    A.    GARFIELD-, 
'The  weak,  the  leaning,  the  dependent,  the  vacillating 
Know  not,  nor  ever  can,  the  generous  pride 
That  glows  in  him,  who  on  himself  relies : 
His  joy  is  not  tliat  he  has  won  the  crown, 
But  that  the  power  to  win  the  crown  is  his." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SELF-HELP. 

I  learned  that  no  man  in  God's  wide  earth  is  either  willing  or  able  to  help 
any  other  man.  —  Pestalozzi. 

What  I  am  I  have  made  myself.  —  Humphry  Davy. 

Be  sure,  my  son,  and  remember  that  the  best  men  always  make  them- 
selves. —  Patrick  Henry. 

Hereditary  bondsmen,  know  ye  not 

Who  would  be  free  themselves  must  strike  the  blow  ?  Byron. 

God  gives  every  bird  its  food,  but  he  does  not  throw  it  into  the  nest.  — 
J.  G.  Holland. 

Never  forget  that  others  will  depend  upon  you,  and  that  you  cannot 
depend  upon  them.  — Dumas,  Fils. 

Our  remedies  oft  in  ourselves  do  lie,  which  we  ascribe  to  Heaven.  — 
Shakespeare. 

The  best  education  in  the  world  is  that  got  by  struggling  to  obtain  a  liv- 
ing. —  W^endell  Phillips. 

Every  person  has  two  educations,  one  which  he  receives  from  others, 
and  one,  more  important,  which  he  gives  himself.  —  Gibbon. 

What  the  superior  man  seeks  is  in  himself:  what  the  small  man  seeks  is 
in  others.  —  Confucius. 

Who  waits  to  have  his  task  marked  out. 
Shall  die  and  leave  his  errand  unfulfilled.  Lowell. 

In  battle  or  business,  whatever  the  game, 
In  law,  or  in  love,  it 's  ever  the  same : 
In  the  struggle  for  power,  or  scramble  for  pelf, 
Let  this  be  your  motto,  "Rely  on  yourself."  Saxe. 

Let  every  eye  negotiate  for  itself, 
And  trust  no  agent.  Shakespeare. 

^'  Colonel  Crockett  makes  room  for  himself ! "  ex- 
claimed a  backwoods  congressman  in  answer  to  the 
exclamation  of  the  White  House  usher  to  "  Make  room 
for  Colonel  Crockett !  "  This  remarkable  man  was  not 
afraid  to  oppose  the  head  of  a  great  nation.     He  pre- 


146  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

ferred  being  right  to  being  president.  Though  rough, 
uncultured,  and  uncouth,  Crockett  was  a  man  of  great 
courage  and  determination. 

Garfield  was  the  youngest  member  of  the  House  of 
Eepresentatives  when  he  entered,  but  he  had  not  been 
in  his  seat  sixty  days  before  his  ability  was  recognized 
and  his  place  conceded.  He  stepped  to  the  front  with 
the  confidence  of  one  who  belonged  there.  He  suc- 
ceeded because  all  the  world  in  concert  could  not  have 
kept  him  in  the  background,  and  because  when  once  in 
the  front  he  played  his  part  with  an  intrepidity  and  a 
commanding  ease  that  were  but  the  outward  evidences 
of  the  immense  reserves  of  energy  on  which  it  was  in 
his  power  to  draw. 

"  Take  the  place  and  attitude  which  belong  to  you," 
says  Emerson,  "  and  all  men  acquiesce.  The  world 
must  be  just.  It  leaves  every  man  with  profound  un- 
concern to  set  his  own  rate." 

Grant  was  no  book  soldier.  Some  of  his  victories 
were  contrary  to  all  instructions  in  military  works. 
He  did  not  dare  to  disclose  his  plan  to  invest  Vicksburg, 
and  he  even  cut  off  all  communication  on  the  Missis- 
sippi Eiver  for  seven  days  that  no  orders  could  reach 
him  from  General  Halleck,  his  superior  officer  ;  for  he 
knew  that  Halleck  went  by  books,  and  he  was  proceed- 
ing contrary  to  all  military  theories.  He  was  making  a 
greater  military  history  than  had  ever  been  written  up 
to  that  time.  He  was  greater  than  all  books  of  tactics. 
The  consciousness  of  power  is  everything.  That  man 
is  strongest  who  owes  most  to  himself. 

"  Man,  it  is  within  yourself,"  says  Pestalozzi,  "  it  is 
in  the  inner  sense  of  your  power  that  resides  nature's 
instrument  for  your  development." 

Eichard  Arkwright,  the  thirteenth  child,  in  a  hovel, 
with  no  education,  no  chance,  gave  his  spinning  model 
to  the  world,  and  put  a  sceptre  in  England's  right  hand 
such  as  the  queen  never  wielded. 


SELF-HELP.  147 

"  A  person  under  the  firm  persuasion  that  he  can  com- 
mand resources  virtually  has  them/'  says  Livy. 

Solario,  a  wandering  gypsy  tinker,  fell  deeply  in  love 
with  the  daughter  of  the  painter  Coll'  Antonio  del  Fiore, 
but  was  told  that  no  one  but  a  painter  as  good  as  the 
father  should  wed  the  maiden.  "  Will  you  give  me  ten 
3''ears  to  learn  to  paint,  and  so  entitle  myself  to  the 
hand  of  your  daughter  ? "  Consent  was  given,  Coll' 
Antonio  thinking  that  he  would  never  be  troubled  fur- 
ther by  the  gypsy.  About  the  time  that  the  ten  years 
were  to  end  the  king's  sister  showed  Coll'  Antonio  a 
Madonna  and  Child,  which  the  painter  extolled  in  terms 
of  the  highest  praise.  Judge  of  his  surprise  on  learn- 
ing that  Solario  was  the  artist.  But  later,  his  son-in- 
law  surprised  him  even  more  by  his  rare  skill. 

Louis  Philippe  said  he  was  the  only  sovereign  in 
Europe  fit  to  govern,  for  he  could  black  his  own  boots. 

When  asked  to  name  his  family  coat-of-arms,  a  self- 
made  President  of  the  United  States  replied,  "  A  pair 
of  shirtsleeves." 

"Poverty  is  uncomfortable,  as  I  can  testify,"  said 
James  A.  G-arfield  ;  "  but  nine  times  out  of  ten  the  best 
thing  that  can  happen  to  a  young  man  is  to  be  tossed 
overboard  and  compelled  to  sink  or  swim  for  himself. 
In  all  my  acquaintance  I  have  never  known  a  man  to  be 
drowned  who  was  worth  the  saving." 

It  is  not  the  men  who  have  inherited  most,  except  it 
be  in  nobility  of  soul  and  purpose,  who  have  risen  high- 
est ;  but  rather  the  men  with  no  "  start "  who  have  won 
fortunes,  and  have  made  adverse  circumstances  a  spur 
to  goad  them  up  the  steep  mount,  where 

"  Fame's  proud  temple  shines  afar." 

To  such  men,  every  possible  goal  is  accessible,  and  hon- 
est ambition  has  no  height  that  genius  or  talent  may 
tread,  which  has  not  felt  the  impress  of  their  feet. 

You  may  leave  your  millions  to  your  son,  but  have 
you  really  given  him  anything  ?    You  cannot  transfer 


148  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  discipline,  the  experience,  the  power  which  the  ac- 
quisition has  given  you ;  you  cannot  transfer  the  de- 
light of  achieving,  the  joy  felt  only  in  growth,  the  pride 
of  acquisition,  the  character  which  trained  habits  of 
accuracy,  method,  promptness,  patience,  dispatch,  hon- 
esty of  dealing,  politeness  of  manner  have  developed. 
You  cannot  transfer  the  skill,  sagacity,  prudence,  fore- 
sight, which  lie  concealed  in  your  wealth.  It  meant  a 
great  deal  for  you,  but  means  nothing  to  your  heir.  In 
climbing  to  your  fortune,  you  developed  the  muscle, 
stamina,  and  strength  which  enabled  you  to  maintain 
your  lofty  position,  to  keep  your  millions  intact.  You 
had  the  power  which  comes  only  from  experience,  and 
which  alone  enables  you  to  stand  firm  on  your  dizzy 
height.  Your  fortune  was  experience  to  you,  joy, 
growth,  discipline,  and  character ;  to  him  it  will  be  a 
temptation,  an  anxiety,  which  will  probably  dAvarf  him. 
It  was  wings  to  you,  it  will  be  a  dead  weight  to  him ; 
it  was  education  to  you  and  expansion  of  your  highest 
powers  ;  to  him  it  may  mean  inaction,  lethargy,  indo- 
lence, weakness,  ignorance.  You  have  taken  the  price- 
less spur  —  necessity  —  away  from  him,  the  spur  which 
has  goaded  man  to  nearly  all  the  great  achievements  in 
the  history  of  the  world. 

You  thought  it  a  kindness  to  deprive  yourself  in  order 
that  your  son  might  begin  where  you  left  off.  You 
thought  to  spare  him  the  drudgery,  the  hardships,  the 
deprivations,  the  lack  of  opportunities,  the  meagre  edu- 
cation, which  you  had  on  the  old  farm.  But  you  have 
put  a  crutch  into  his  hand  instead  of  a  staff ;  you  have 
taken  away  from  him  the  incentive  to  self-development, 
to  self -elevation,  to  self -discipline  and  self-help,  without 
which  no  real  success,  no  real  happiness,  no  great  char- 
acter is  ever  possible.  His  enthusiasm  will  evaporate, 
his  energy  will  be  dissipated,  his  ambition,  not  being 
stimulated  by  the  struggle  for  self-elevation,  will  grad- 
ually die  away.     If  you  do  everything  for  your  son  and 


SELF-HELP.  149 

fight  his  battles  for  him,  you  will  have  a  weakling  on 
your  hands  at  twenty -one. 

*^  My  life  is  a  wreck/'  said  the  dying  Cyrus  W.  Field, 
^^  my  fortune  gone,  my  home  dishonored.  Oh,  I  was  so 
unkind  to  Edward  when  I  thought  I  was  being  kind. 
If  I  had  only  had  firmness  enough  to  compel  my  boys 
to  earn  their  living,  then  they  would  have  known  the 
meaning  of  money."  His  table  was  covered  with  med- 
als and  certificates  of  honor  from  many  nations,  in 
recognition  of  his  great  work  for  civilization  in  mooring 
two  continents  side  by  side  in  thought,  of  the  fame  he 
had  won  and  could  never  lose.  But  grief  shook  the 
sands  of  life  as  he  thought  only  of  the  son  who  had 
brought  disgrace  upon  a  name  before  unsullied ;  the 
wounds  were  sharper  than  those  of  a  serpent's  tooth. 

During  the  great  financial  crisis  of  1857  Maria  Mitch- 
ell, who  was  visiting  England,  asked  an  English  lady 
what  became  of  daughters  when  no  property  was  left 
them.  "  They  live  on  their  brothers,"  was  the  reply. 
"  But  what  becomes  of  the  American  daughters,"  asked 
the  English  lady,  "when  there  is  no  money  left?" 
"  They  earn  it,"  was  the  reply. 

Men  who  have  been  bolstered  up  all  their  lives  are 
seldom  good  for  anything  in  a  crisis.  When  misfortune 
comes,  they  look  around  for  somebody  to  lean  upon. 
If  the  prop  is  not  there  down  they  go.  Once  down,  they 
are  as  helpless  as  capsized  turtles,  or  unhorsed  men  in 
armor.  Many  a  frontier  boy  has  succeeded  beyond  all 
his  expectations  simply  because  all  props  were  knocked 
out  from  under  him  and  he  was  obliged  to  stand  upon 
his  own  feet. 

"  A  man's  best  friends  are  his  ten  fingers,"  said  Rob- 
ert CoUyer,  who  brought  his  wife  to  America  in  the 
steerage.  Young  men  who  are  always  looking  for  some- 
thing to  lean  upon  never  amount  to  anything. 

There  is  no  manhood  mill  which  takes  in  boys  and 
turns  out  men.     What  you  call  "  no  chance  "  may  be 


150  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

your  "  only  chance."  Don't  wait  for  your  place  to  be 
made  for  3^ou ;  make  it  yourself.  Don't  wait  for  some- 
body to  give  you  a  lift ;  lift  yourself.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  did  not  wait  for  a  call  to  a  big  church  with  a 
large  salary.  He  accepted  the  first  pastorate  offered 
him,  in  a  little  town  near  Cincinnati.  He  became  liter- 
ally the  light  of  the  church,  for  he  trimmed  the  lamps, 
kindled  the  fires,  swept  the  rooms,  and  rang  the  bell. 
His  salary  was  only  about  $200  a  year,  —  but  he  knew 
that  a  fine  church  and  great  salary  cannot  make  a  great 
man.  It  was  work  and  opportunity  that  he  wanted. 
,He  felt  that  if  there  was  anything  in  him  work  would 
bring  it  out. 

'' Physiologists  tell  us,"  says  Waters,  "that  it  takes 
twenty-eight  years  for  the  brain  to  attain  its  full  devel- 
opment. If  this  is  so,  why  should  not  one  be  able,  by 
his  own  efforts,  to  give  this  long-growing  organ  a  par- 
ticular bent,  a  peculiar  character  ?  Why  should  the 
will  not  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  formation  of  the 
brain  as  well  as  of  the  backbone  ?  "  The  will  is  merely 
our  steam  power,  and  we  may  put  it  to  any  work  we 
please.  It  will  do  our  bidding,  whether  it  be  building 
up  a  character,  or  tearing  it  down.  It  may  be  applied 
to  building  up  a  habit  of  truthfulness  and  honesty,  or 
of  falsehood  and  dishonor.  It  will  help  build  up  a  man 
or  a  brute,  a  hero  or  a  coward.  It  will  brace  up  reso- 
lution until  one  may  almost  perform  miracles,  or  it  may 
be  dissipated  in  irresolution  and  inaction  until  life  is  a 
wreck.  It  will  hold  you  to  your  task  until  you  have 
formed  a  powerful  habit  of  industry  and  application, 
until  idleness  and  inaction  are  painful,  or  it  will  lead 
you  into  indolence  and  listlessness  until  every  effort 
will  be  disagreeable  and  success  impossible. 

"  The  first  thing  I  have  to  impress  upon  you  is,"  says 
J.  T.  Davidson,  "  that  a  good  name  must  be  the  fruit  of 
one's  own  exertion.  You  cannot  possess  it  by  patri- 
mony ;  you  cannot  purchase  it  with  money ;  you  will 


SELF-HELP.  151 

not  light  on  it  by  chance  ;  it  is  independent  of  birth, 
station,  talents,  and  wealth  ;  it  must  be  the  outcome  of 
your  own  endeavor,  and  the  reward  of  good  principles 
and  honorable  conduct.  Of  all  the  elements  of  success 
in  life  none  is  more  vital  than  self-reliance,  —  a  deter- 
mination to  be,  under  God,  the  creator  of  your  own 
reputation  and  advancement.  If  difficulties  stand  in  the 
way,  if  exceptional  disadvantages  oppose  you,  all  the 
better,  as  long  as  you  have  pluck  to  fight  through  them; 
I  want  each  young  man  here  (you  will  not  misunder- 
stand me)  to  have  faith  in  himself  and,  scorning  props 
and  buttresses,  crutches  and  life-preservers,  to  take  ear- 
nest hold  of  life.  Many  a  lad  has  good  stuff  in  him  that 
never  comes  to  anything  because  he  slips  too  easily  into 
some  groove  of  life ;  it  is  commonly  those  who  have  a 
tough  battle  to  begin  with  that  make  their  mark  upon 
their  age." 

When  Beethoven  was  examining  the  work  of  Mosche- 
les,  he  found  written  at  the  end  "  Finis,  with  God's  help.'^ 
He  wrote  under  it  "  Man,  help  yourself.'^ 

A  young  man  stood  listlessly  watching  some  anglers 
on  a  bridge.  He  was  poor  and  dejected.  At  length, 
approaching  a  basket  filled  with  fish,  he  sighed,  "If 
now  I  had  these  I  would  be  happy.  I  could  sell  them 
and  buy  food  and  lodgings."  "  I  will  give  you  just  as 
many  and  just  as  good,"  said  the  owner,  who  chanced 
to  overhear  his  words,  "  if  you  will  do  me  a  trifling  fa- 
vor." "  And  what  is  that  ?  "  asked  the  other.  "  Only 
to  tend  this  line  till  I  come  back ;  I  wish  to  go  on  a 
short  errand."  The  proposal  was  gladly  accepted.  The 
old  man  was  gone  so  long  that  the  young  man  began  to 
get  impatient.  Meanwhile  the  fish  snapped  greedily  at 
the  hook,  and  he  lost  all  his  depression  in  the  excite- 
ment of  pulling  them  in.  When  the  owner  returned  he 
had  caught  a  large  number.  Counting  out  from  them 
as  many  as  were  in  the  basket,  and  presenting  them  to 
the  youth,  the  old  fisherman  said,  "  I  fulfill  my  prom- 


152  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

ise  from  the  fish  you  have  caught,  to  teach  you  when- 
ever you  see  others  earning  what  you  need  to  waste  no 
time  in  foolish  wishing,  but  cast  a  line  for  yourself." 

A  white  squall  caught  a  party  of  tourists  on  a  lake  in 
Scotland,  and  threatened  to  capsize  the  boat.  When  it 
seemed  that  the  crisis  was  really  come  the  largest  and 
strongest  man  in  the  party,  in  a  state  of  intense  fear, 
said,  "Let  us  pray."  "No,  no,  my  man,"  shouted  the 
bluff  old  boatman ;  "  let  the  little  mian  pray.  You  take 
an  oar.^^  The  greatest  curse  that  can  befall  a  young 
man  is  to  lean. 

The  grandest  fortunes  ever  accumulated  or  possessed 
on  earth  were  and  are  the  fruit  of  endeavor  that  had  no 
capital  to  begin  with  save  energy,  intellect,  and  the 
will.  From  Croesus  down  to  Eockefeller  the  story  is 
the  same,  not  only  in  the  getting  of  wealth,  but  also  in 
the  acquirement  of  eminence ;  those  men  have  won  most 
who  relied  most  upon  themselves. 

It  has  been  said  that  one  of  the  most  disgusting 
sights  in  this  world  is  that  of  a  young  man  with  healthy 
blood,  broad  shoulders,  presentable  calves,  and  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  pounds,  more  or  less,  of  good  bone  and 
muscle,  standing  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets  longing 
for  help. 

"  The  male  inhabitants  in  the  Township  of  Loafer- 
dom,  in  the  County  of  Hate  work,"  says  a  printer's 
squib,  "found  themselves  laboring  under  great  incon- 
venience for  wa,nt  of  an  easily  traveled  road  between 
Poverty  and  Independence.  They  therefore  petitioned 
the  Powers  that  be  to  levy  a  tax  upon  the  property  of 
the  entire  county  for  the  purpose  of  laying  out  a  mac- 
adamized highway,  broad  and  smooth,  and  all  the  way 
down  hill  to  the  latter  place." 

"It  is  interesting  to  notice  how  some  minds  seem 
almost  to  create  themselves,"  says  Irving,  "springing 
up  under  every  disadvantage,  and  working  their  solitary 
but  irresistible  way  through  a  thousand  obstacles." 


MICHAEL    FARADAY 
"  King  of  two  hands." 
"  The  world  is  no  longer  clay,  but  rather  iron  in  the  hands  of  its  workers,  and 
men  must  liammer  out  a  place  for  themselves  by  steady  and  rugged  blows." 


SELF-HELP.  153 

"  Every  one  is  the  artificer  of  his  own  fortune/'  says 
Sallust. 

Man  is  not  merely  the  architect  of  his  own  fortune, 
but  he  must  lay  the  bricks  himself.  Bayard  Taylor,  at 
twent}' -three,  wrote :  "  I  will  become  the  sculptor  of 
my  own  mind's  statue."  His  biography  shows  how 
often  the  chisel  and  hammer  were  in  his  hands  to  shape 
himself  into  his  ideal.  "  I  have  seen  none,  known  none, 
of  the  celebrities  of  my  time,"  said  Samuel  Cox.  "  All 
my  energy  was  directed  upon  one  end,  to  improve  my- 
self." 

"  Man  exists  for  culture,"  says  Goethe  ;  "  not  for 
what  he  can  accomplish,  but  for  what  can  be  accom- 
plished in  him." 

When  young  Professor  Tyndall  was  in  the  govern- 
ment service,  he  had  no  definite  aim  in  life  until  one 
day  a  government  ofiicial  asked  him  how  he  employed 
his  leisure  time.  "  You  have  five  hours  a  day  at  your 
disposal,"  said  he,  ^'and  this  ought  to  be  devoted  to 
systematic  study.  Had  I  at  your  age  some  one  to  ad- 
vise me  as  I  now  advise  you,  instead  of  being  in  a  sub- 
ordinate position,  I  might  have  been  at  the  head  of  my 
department."  The  very  next  day  young  Tyndall  began 
a  regular  course  of  study,  and  went  to  the  University 
of  Marburg,  where  he  became  noted  for  his  indomitable 
industry.  He  was  so  poor  that  he  bought  a  cask,  and  cut 
it  open  for  a  bathtub.  He  often  rose  before  daylight 
to  study,  while  the  world  was  slumbering  about  him. 

Labor  is  the  only  legal  tender  in  the  world  to  true 
success.  The  gods  sell  everything  for  that,  nothing 
without  it.  You  will  never  find  success  "  marked  down." 
The  door  to  the  temple  of  success  is  never  left  open. 
Every  one  who  enters  makes  his  own  door  which  closes 
behind  him  to  all  others. 

Circumstances  have  rarely  favored  great  men.  They 
have  fought  their  way  to  triumph  over  the  road  of  diflB.- 
culty  and  through  all  sorts  of  opposition.     A  lowly  be- 


154  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

ginning  and  a  humble  origin  are  no  bar  to  a  great  career. 
The  farmers'  boys  fill  many  of  the  greatest  places  in 
legislatures,  in  syndicates,  at  the  bar,  in  pulpits,  in 
Congress,  to-day.  Boys  of  lowly  origin  have  made 
many  of  the  greatest  discoveries,  are  presidents  of  our 
banks,  of  our  colleges,  of  our  universities.  Our  poor 
boys  and  girls  have  written  many  of  our  greatest  books, 
and  have  filled  the  highest  places  as  teachers  and 
journalists.  Ask  almost  any  great  man  in  our  large 
cities  where  he  was  born,  and  he  will  tell  you  it  was  on 
a  farm  or  in  a  small  country  village.  ^N'early  all  of  the 
great  capitalists  of  the  city  came  from  the  country. 
"  'T  is  better  to  be  lowly  born." 

The  founder  of  Boston  University  left  Cape  Cod  for 
Boston  to  make  his  way  with  a  capital  of  only  four  dol- 
lars. Like  Horace  Greeley,  he  could  find  no  opening 
for  a  boy ;  but  what  of  that  ?  He  made  an  opening. 
He  found  a  board,  and  made  it  into  an  oyster  stand  on 
the  street  corner.  He  borrowed  a  wheelbarrow,  and 
went  three  miles  to  an  oyster  smack,  bought  three  bush- 
els of  oysters,  and  wheeled  them  to  his  stand.  Soon 
his  little  savings  amounted  to  ^130,  and  then  he  bought 
a  horse  and  cart.  This  poor  boy  with  no  chance  kept 
right  on  till  he  became  the  millionaire  Isaac  Eich. 

Chauncey  Jerome,  the  inventor  of  machine-made 
clocks,  started  with  two  others  on  a  tour  through  New 
Jersey,  they  to  sell  the  clocks,  and  he  to  make  cases  for 
them.  On  his  way  to  New  York  he  went  through  New 
Haven  in  a  lumber  wagon,  eating  bread  and  cheese. 
He  afterward  lived  in  a  fine  mansion  in  New  Haven. 

Self-help  has  accomplished  about  all  the  great  things 
of  the  world.  How  many  young  men  falter,  faint,  and 
dally  with  their  purpose  because  they  have  no  capital 
to  start  with,  and  wait  and  wait  for  some  good  luck  to 
give  them  a  lift.  But  success  is  the  child  of  drudgery 
and  perseverance.  It  cannot  be  coaxed  or  bribed ;  pay 
the  price  and  it  is  yours.     Where  is  the  boy  to-day  who 


SELF-HELP.  155 

has  less  chance  to  rise  in  the  workl  than  Elihu  Burritt, 
apprenticed  to  a  blacksmith,  in  whose  shop  he  had  to 
work  at  the  forge  all  the  daylight,  and  often  by  candle- 
light ?  Yet,  he  managed,  by  studying  with  a  book  be- 
fore him  at  his  meals,  carrying  it  in  his  pocket  that  he 
might  utilize  every  spare  moment,  and  studying  nights 
and  holidays,  to  pick  up  an  excellent  education  in  the 
odds  and  ends  of  time  which  most  boys  throw  away. 
While  the  rich  boy  and  the  idler  were  yawning  and 
stretching  and  getting  their  eyes  open,  young  Burritt 
had  seized  the  opportunity  and  improved  it.  At  thirty 
years  of  age  he  was  master  of  every  important  language 
in  Europe  and  was  studying  those  of  Asia. 

What  chance  had  such  a  boy  for  distinction  ?  Prob- 
ably not  a  single  youth  will  read  this  book  who  has  not 
a  better  opportunity  for  success.  Yet  he  had  a  thirst 
for  knowledge,  and  a  desire  for  self-improvement,  which 
overcame  every  obstacle  in  his  pathway.  A  wealthy 
gentleman  offered  to  pay  his  expenses  at  Harvard  ;  but 
no,  he  said  he  could  get  his  education  himself,  even 
though  he  had  to  work  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  a  day  at 
the  forge.  Here  was  a  determined  boy.  He  snatched 
every  spare  moment  at  the  anvil  and  forge  as  though  it 
were  gold.  He  believed,  with  Gladstone,  that  thrift  of 
time  would  repay  him  in  after  years  with  usury,  and  that 
waste  of  it  would  make  him  dwindle.  Think  of  a  boy 
working  nearly  all  the  daylight  in  a  blacksmith's  shop, 
and  yet  finding  time  to  study  seven  languages  in  a  sin- 
gle year ! 

If  the  youth  of  America  who  are  struggling  against 
cruel  circumstances,  to  do  something  and  be  somebody  in 
*the  world,  could  only  understand  that  ninety  per  cent, 
of  what  is  called  genius  is  merely  the  result  of  persist- 
ent, determined  industr}^,  is  in  most  cases  downright 
hard  work,  that  it  is  the  slavery  to  a  single  idea  which 
has  given  to  many  a  mediocre  talent  the  reputation  of 
being  a  genius,  they  would  be  inspired  with  new  hope. 


156  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  men  who  talk  most 
about  genius  are  the  men  who  like  to  work  the  least. 
The  lazier  the  man,  the  more  he  will  have  to  say  about 
great  things  being  done  by  genius. 

The  greatest  geniuses  have  been  the  greatest  workers. 
Sheridan  was  considered  a  genius,  but  it  was  found  that 
the  "  brilliants  "  and  "  off-hand  sayings  "  with  which  he 
used  to  dazzle  the  House  of  Commons  were  elaborated, 
polished  and  repolished,  and  put  down  in  his  memoran- 
dum book  ready  for  any  emergency. 

Genius  has  been  well  defined  as  the  infinite  capacity 
for  taking  pains.  If  men  who  have  done  great  things 
could  only  reveal  to  the  struggling  youth  of  to-day  how 
much  of  their  reputations  was  due  to  downright  hard 
digging  and  plodding,  what  an  uplift  of  inspiration  and 
encouragement  they  would  give.  How  often  I  have 
wished  that  the  discouraged,  struggling  youth  could 
know  of  the  heart-aches,  the  head-aches,  the  nerve-aches, 
the  disheartening  trials,  the  discouraged  hours,  the  fears 
and  despair  involved  in  works  which  have  gained  the 
admiration  of  the  world,  but  which  have  taxed  the  ut- 
most powers  of  their  authors.  You  can  read  in  a  few 
minutes  or  a  few  hours  a  poem  or  a  book  with  only 
pleasure  and  delight,  but  the  days  and  months  of  weary 
plodding  over  details  and  dreary  drudgery  often  re- 
quired to  produce  it  would  stagger  belief. 

The  greatest  works  in  literature  have  been  elaborated 
and  elaborated,  line  by  line,  paragraph  by  paragraph, 
often  rcAvritten  a  dozen  times.  The  drudgery  which 
literary  men  have  put  into  the  productions  which  have 
stood  the  test  of  time  is  almost  incredible.  Lucretius 
worked  nearly  a  lifetime  on  one  poem.  It  completely 
absorbed  his  life.  It  is  said  that  Bryant  rewrote 
"  Thanatopsis "  a  hundred  times,  and  even  then  was 
not  satisfied  with  it.  John  Foster  would  sometimes 
linger  a  week  over  a  single  sentence.  He  would  hack, 
split,  prune,  pull  up  by  the  roots,  or  practice  any  other 


SELF-HELP.  157 

severity  on  whatever  he  wrote,  till  it  gained  his  consent 
to  exist.  Chalmers  was  once  asked  what  Foster  was 
about  in  London.  "  Hard  at  it/'  he  replied,  "  at  the 
rate  of  a  line  a  week."  Dickens,  one  of  the  greatest 
writers  of  modern  fiction,  was  so  worn  down  by  hard 
work  that  he  looked  as  "haggard  as  a  murderer." 
Even  Lord  Bacon,  one  of  the  greatest  geniuses  that 
ever  lived,  left  large  numbers  of  MSS.  filled  with 
"  sudden  thoughts  set  down  for  use."  Hume  toiled  thir- 
teen hours  a  day  on  his  "  History  of  England."  Lord 
Eldon  astonished  the  world  with  his  great  legal  learn- 
ing, but  when  he  was  a  student  too  poor  to  buy  books, 
he  had  actually  borrowed  and  copied  many  hundreds  of 
pages  of  large  law  books,  such  as  Coke  upon  Littleton, 
thus  saturating  his  mind  with  legal  principles  which 
afterward  blossomed  out  into  what  the  world  called 
remarkable  genius.  Matthew  Hale  for  years  studied 
law  sixteen  hours  a  day.  Speaking  of  Fox,  some  one 
declared  that  he  wrote  "  drop  by  drop."  Eousseau  says 
of  the  labor  involved  in  his  smooth  and  lively  style : 
"My  manuscripts,  blotted,  scratched,  interlined,  and 
scarcely  legible,  attest  the  trouble  they  cost  me.  There 
is  not  one  of  them  which  I  have  not  been  obliged  to 
transcribe  four  or  five  times  before  it  went  to  press. 
.  .  .  Some  of  my  periods  I  have  turned  or  returned  in 
my  head  for  five  or  six  nights  before  they  were  fit  to 
be  put  to  paper." 

It  is  said  that  Waller  spent  a  whole  summer  over  ten 
lines  in  one  of  his  poems.  Beethoven  probably  sur- 
passed all  other  musicians  in  his  painstaking  fidelity 
and  persistent  application.  There  is  scarcely  a  bar  in 
his  music  that  was  not  written  and  rewritten  at  least 
a  dozen  times.  His  favorite  maxim  was,  "  The  barriers 
are  not  yet  erected  which  can  say  to  aspiring  talent  and 
industry  '  thus  far  and  no  further.' "  Gibbon  wrote 
his  autobiography  nine  times,  and  was  in  his  study 
every  morning,    summer   and  winter,   at   six   o'clock ; 


158  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

and  yet  youth  who  waste  their  evenings  wonder  at 
the  genius  which  can  produce  "  The  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Koman  Empire/'  upon  which  Gibbon  worked 
twenty  years.  Even  Plato,  one  of  the  greatest  writers 
that  ever  lived,  wrote  the  first  sentence  in  his  "  Kepub- 
lic"  nine  different  ways  before  he  was  satisfied  with 
it.  Burke's  famous  "  Letter  to  a  Noble  Lord,"  one  of 
the  finest  things  in  the  English  language,  was  so  com- 
pletely blotted  over  with  alterations  when  the  proof 
was  returned  to  the  printing-oliice  that  the  compositors 
refused  to  correct  it  as  it  was,  and  entirely  reset  it. 
Burke  wrote  the  conclusion  of  his  speech  at  the  trial 
of  Hastings  sixteen  times,  and  Butler  wrote  his  famous 
"  Analogy  "  twenty  times.  It  took  Virgil  seven  years 
to  write  his  Georgics,  and  twelve  years  to  write  the 
uEneid.  He  was  so  displeased  with  the  latter  that  he 
attempted  to  rise  from  his  deathbed  to  commit  it  to 
the  flames. 

Haydn  was  very  poor;  his  father  was  a  coachman 
and  he,  friendless  and  lonely,  married  a  servant  girl. 
He  was  sent  away  from  home  to  act  as  errand  boy  for 
a  music  teacher.  He  absorbed  a  great  deal  of  informar 
tion,  but  he  had  a  hard  life  of  persecution  until  he  be- 
came a  barber  in  Vienna.  Here  he  blacked  boots  for 
an  influential  man,  who  became  a  friend  to  him.  In 
1798  this  poor  boy's  oratorio,  "The  Creation,"  came 
upon  the  musical  world  like  the  rising  of  a  new  sun 
which  never  set.  He  was  courted  by  princes  and  dined 
with  kings  and  queens  ;  his  reputation  was  made ;  there 
was  no  more  barbering,  no  more  poverty.  But  of  his 
eight  hundred  compositions,  "The  Creation"  eclipsed 
them  all.  He  died  while  Napoleon's  guns  were  bom- 
barding Vienna,  some  of  the  shot  falling  in  his  gar- 
den. The  greatest  creations  of  musicians  were  written 
with  an  effort,  to  fill  the  "  aching  void  "  in  the  human 
heart. 

Frederick  Douglass,  America's  most   representative 


SELF-HELP.  159 

colored  man,  born  a  slave,  was  reared  in  bondage,  liber- 
ated by  liis  own  exertions,  educated  and  advanced  by 
sheer  pluck  and  perseverance  to  distinguished  posi- 
tions in  the  service  of  his  country,  and  to  a  high  place 
in  the  respect  and  esteem  of  the  whole  world. 

When  a  man  like  Lord  Cavanagh,  without  arms  or 
legs,  manages  to  put  himself  into  Parliament,  when  a 
man  like  Francis  Joseph  Campbell,  a  blind  man,  be- 
comes a  distinguished  mathematician,  a  musician,  and  a 
great  philanthropist,  we  get  a  hint  as  to  what  it  means 
to  make  the  most  possible  out  of  ourselves  and  oppor- 
tunities. Perhaps  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  under 
such  unfortunate  circumstances  would  be  content  to 
remain  helpless  objects  of  charity  for  life.  If  it  is  your 
call  to  acquire  money  power  instead  of  brain  power,  to 
acquire  business  power  instead  of  professional  power, 
double  your  talent  just  the  same,  no  matter  what  it  may 
be. 

A  glover's  apprentice  of  Glasgow,  Scotland,  who  was 
too  poor  to  afford  even  a  candle  or  a  fire,  and  who 
studied  by  the  light  of  the  shop  windows  in  the  streets, 
and  when  the  shops  were  closed  climbed  the  lamp-post, 
holding  his  book  in  one  hand,  and  clinging  to  the 
lamp-post  with  the  other,  —  this  poor  boy,  with  less 
chance  than  almost  any  boy  in  America,  became  the 
most  eminent  scholar  of  Scotland. 

Francis  Parkman,  half  blind,  became  one  of  Amer- 
ica's greatest  historians  in  spite  of  everything,  because 
he  made  himself  such.  Personal  value  is  a  coin  of  one's 
own  minting;  one  is  taken  at  the  worth  he  has  put 
into  himself.  Franklin  was  but  a  poor  printer's  boy, 
whose  highest  luxury  at  one  time  was  only  a  penny  roll, 
eaten  in  the  streets  of  Philadelphia.  Eichard  Ark- 
wright,  a  barber  all  his  earlier  life,  as  he  rose  from 
poverty  to  wealth  and  fame,  felt  the  need  of  correcting 
the  defects  of  his  early  education.  After  his  fiftieth 
year   he   devoted  two  hours  a  day,  snatched  from  his 


160  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

sleep,  to  improving  himself  in  orthography,  grammar, 
and  writing. 

Michael  Faraday  was  a  poor  boy,  son  of  a  black- 
smith, who  apprenticed  him  at  the  age  of  thirteen  to  a 
bookbinder  in  London.  Michael  laid  the  foundations 
of  his  future  greatness  by  making  himself  familiar  with 
the  contents  of  the  books  he  bound.  He  remained  at 
night,  after  others  had  gone,  to  read  and  study  the 
precious  volumes.  Lord  Tenterden  was  proud  to  point 
out  to  his  son  the  shop  where  his  father  had  shaved 
for  a  penny.  A  French  doctor  once  taunted  Flechier, 
Bishop  of  Nismes,  who  had  been  a  tallow-chandler  in 
his  youth,  with  the  meanness  of  his  origin,  to  which  he 
replied,  "  If  you  had  been  born  in  the  same  condition 
that  I  was,  you  would  still  have  been  but  a  maker  of 
candles." 

The  Duke  of  Argyle,  walking  in  his  garden,  saw  a 
Latin  copy  of  Newton's  "  Principia  "  on  the  grass,  and 
supposing  that  it  had  been  taken  from  his  library,  called 
for  some  one  to  carry  it  back.  Edmund  Stone,  however, 
the  son  of  the  duke's  gardener,  claimed  it.  "  Yours  ?  " 
asked  the  surprised  nobleman.  "  Do  you  understand 
geometry,  Latin,  and  Newton  ?  "  "I  know  a  little  of 
them,"  replied  Edmund.  "  But  how,"  asked  the  duke, 
"  came  you  by  the  knowledge  of  all  these  things  ?  "  "A 
servant  taught  me  to  read  ten  years  since,"  answered 
Stone.  "  Does  one  need  to  know  anything  more  than 
the  twenty-four  letters,  in  order  to  learn  everything 
else  that  one  wishes  ?  "  The  duke  was  astonished.  "  I 
first  learned  to  read,"  said  the  lad ;  "  the  masons  were 
then  at  work  upon  your  house.  I  approached  them  one 
day  and  observed  that  the  architect  used  a  rule  and  com- 
passes, and  that  he  made  calculations.  I  inquired  what 
might  be  the  meaning  and  use  of  these  things,  and  I 
was  informed  that  there  was  a  science  called  arithmetic. 
I  purchased  a  book  of  arithmetic  and  learned  it.  I  was 
told  that  there  was  another  science  called  geometrj^ ;  I 


SELF-HELP.  161 

bought  the  necessary  books  and  learned  geometry.  By 
reading  I  found  that  there  were  good  books  on  these 
sciences  in  Latin,  so  I  bought  a  dictionary  and  learned 
Latin.  I  understood,  also,  that  there  were  good  books 
of  the  same  kind  in  French ;  I  bought  a  dictionary,  and 
learned  French.  This,  my  lord,  is  what  I  have  done  j 
it  seems  to  me  that  we  may  learn  everytliing  when  we 
know  the  twenty-four  letters  of  the  alphabet." 

Edwin  Chadwick,  in  his  rex3ort  to  the  British  Parlia- 
ment, stated  that  children,  working  on  half  time,  that 
is,  studying  three  hours  a  day  and  working  the  rest  of 
their  time  out  of  doors,  really  made  the  greatest  intel- 
lectual progress  during  the  year.  Business  men  have 
often  accomplished  wonders  during  the  busiest  lives  by 
simply  devoting  one,  two,  three,  or  four  hours  daily  to 
study  or  other  literary  work. 

James  Watt  received  only  the  rudiments  of  an  educa- 
tion at  school,  for  his  attendance  was  irregular  on  ac- 
count of  delicate  health.  He  more  than  made  up  for 
all  deficiencies,  however,  by  the  diligence  with  which 
he  pursued  his  studies  at  home.  Alexander  V.  was  a 
beggar  ;  he  was  "born  mud,  and  died  marble."  William 
Herschel,  placed  at  the  age  of  fourteen  as  a  musician 
in  the  band  of  the  Hanoverian  Guards,  devoted  all  his 
leisure  to  philosophical  studies.  He  acquired  a  large 
fund  of  general  knowledge,  and  in  astronomy,  a  science 
in  which  he  was  wholly  self-instructed,  his  discoveries 
entitle  him  to  rank  with  the  greatest  astronomers  of 
all  time. 

George  Washington  was  the  son  of  a  widow,  born 
under  the  roof  of  a  Westmoreland  farmer ;  almost  from 
infancy  his  lot  had  been  the  lot  of  an  orphan.  No 
academy  had  welcomed  him  to  its  shade,  no  college 
crowned  him  with  its  honors ;  to  read,  to  write,  to  ci- 
pher, these  had  been  his  degrees  in  knowledge.  Shake- 
speare learned  little  more  than  reading  and  writing 
at  school,  but  by  self-culture  he  made  himself  the  great 


162  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

master  among  literary  men.  Burns,  too,  enjoyed  few 
advantages  of  education,  and  his  youth  was  passed  in 
almost  abject  poverty. 

James  Ferguson,  the  son  of  a  half-starved  peasant, 
learned  to  read  by  listening  to  the  recitations  of  one 
of  his  elder  brothers.  While  a  mere  boy  he  discovered 
several  mechanical  j)rinciples,  made  models  of  mills  and 
spinning  -  wheels,  and  by  means  of  beads  on  strings 
worked  out  an  excellent  map  of  the  heavens.  Fergu- 
son made  remarkable  things  with  a  common  penknife. 
How  many  great  men  have  mounted  the  hill  of  know- 
ledge by  out-of-the-way  paths.  Gifford  worked  his  in- 
tricate problems  with  a  shoemaker's  awl  on  a  bit  of 
leather.  Eittenhouse  first  calculated  eclipses  on  his 
plow-handle.     A  willfiiids  a  ivay. 

Julius  Caesar,  who  has  been  unduly  honored  for  those 
great  military  achievements  in  which  he  appears  as  the 
scourge  of  his  race,  is  far  more  deserving  of  respect 
for  those  wonderful  Commentaries,  in  which  his  mili- 
tary exploits  are  recorded.  He  attained  distinction  by 
his  writings  on  astronomy,  grammar,  history,  and  sev- 
eral other  subjects.  He  was  one  of  the  most  learned 
men  and  one  of  the  greatest  orators  of  his  time.  Yet 
his  life  was  spent  amid  the  turmoil  of  a  camp  or  the 
fierce  struggle  of  politics.  If  he  found  abundant  time 
for  study,  who  may  not  ?  Frederick  the  Great,  too, 
was  busy  in  camp  the  greater  part  of  his  life,  yet 
whenever  a  leisure  moment  came,  it  was  sure  to  be  de- 
voted to  study.  He  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  I  become  every 
day  more  covetous  of  my  time ;  I  render  an  account 
of  it  to  myself,  and  I  lose  none  of  it  but  with  great 
regret." 

Columbus,  while  leading  the  life  of  a  sailor,  managed 
to  become  the  most  accomplished  geographer  and  as- 
tronomer of  his  time. 

When  Peter  the  Great,  a  boy  of  seventeen,  beca^me 
the  absolute  ruler  of  Russia,  his  subjects  were  little  bet- 


SELF-HELP.  163 

ter  than  savages,  and  in  himself,  even,  the  passions  and 
propensities  of  barbarism  were  so  strong  that  they  were 
frequently  exhibited  during  his  whole  career.  But  he 
determined  to  transform  himself  and  the  Russians  into 
civilized  people.  He  instituted  reforms  with  great  en- 
ergy, and  at  the  age  of  twenty-six  started  on  a  visit  to 
the  other  countries  of  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  learn- 
ing about  their  arts  and  institutions.  At  Saardam, 
Holland,  he  was  so  impressed  with  the  sights  of  the 
great  East  India  dockyard,  that  he  apprenticed  himself 
to  a  shipbuilder,  and  helped  build  the  St.  Peter,  which 
he  promptly  purchased.  Continuing  his  travels,  after 
he  had  learned  his  trade,  he  worked  in  England  in 
paper-mills,  saw-mills,  rope-yards,  watchmaker's  shops, 
and  other  manufactories,  doing  the  work  and  receiving 
the  treatment  of  a  common  laborer. 

While  traveling,  his  constant  habit  was  to  obtain  as 
much  information  as  he  could  beforehand  with  regard 
to  every  place  he  was  to  visit,  and  he  would  demand, 
"  Let  me  see  all."  When  setting  out  on  his  investiga- 
tions, on  such  occasions,  he  carried  his  tablets  in  his 
hand,  and  whatever  he  deemed  worthy  of  remembrance 
was  carefully  noted  down.  He  would  often  leave  his 
carriage,  if  he  saw  the  country  people  at  work  by  the 
wayside  as  he  passed  along,  and  not  only  enter  into 
conversation  with  them,  on  agricultural  affairs,  but  ac- 
company them  to  their  houses,  examine  their  furniture, 
and  take  drawings  of  their  implements  of  husbandry. 
Thus  he  obtained  much  minute  and  correct  knowledge, 
which  he  would  scarcely  have  acquired  by  other  means, 
and  which  he  afterward  turned  to"  admirable  account  in 
the  improvement  of  his  own  country. 

The  ancients  said,  "  Know  thyself  ;  "  the  nineteenth 
century  says,  "  Help  thyself."  Self-culture  gives  a  sec- 
ond birth  to  the  soul.  A  liberal  education  is  a  true 
regeneration.  When  a  man  is  once  liberally  educated, 
he  will  generally  remain  a  man,  not  shrink  to  a  manikin, 


164  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

nor  dwindle  to  a  brute.  But  if  he  is  not  properly  edu- 
cated, if  he  has  merely  been  crammed  and  stuffed 
through  college,  if  he  has  merely  a  broken-down  mem- 
ory from  trying  to  hold  crammed  facts  euough  to  pass 
the  examination,  he  will  continue  to  shrink  and  shrivel 
and  dwindle,  often  below  his  original  proportions,  for 
he  will  lose  both  his  confidence  and  self-respect,  as  his 
crammed  facts,  which  never  became  a  part  of  himself, 
evaporate  from  his  distended  memory.  Many  a  youth 
has  made  his  greatest  effort  in  his  graduating  essay. 
But,  alas  !  the  beautiful  flowers  of  rhetoric  blossomed 
only  to  exhaust  the  parent  stock,  which  blossoms  no 
more  forever. 

In  Strasburg  geese  are  crammed  with  food  several 
times  a  day  by  opening  their  mouths  and  forcing  the 
pabulum  down  the  throat  with  the  finger.  The  geese 
are  shut  up  in  boxes  just  large  enough  to  hold  them, 
and  are  not  allowed  to  take  any  exercise.  This  is  done 
in  order  to  increase  enormously  the  liver  for  pate  de 
fois  gras.  So  are  our  youth  sometimes  stuffed  with 
education.  AVhat  are  the  chances  for  success  of  students 
who  "cut"  recitations  or  lectures,  and  gad,  lounge 
about,  and  dissipate  in  the  cities  at  night  until  the  last 
two  or  three  weeks,  sometimes  the  last  few  days,  before 
examination,  when  they  employ  tutors  at  exorbitant 
prices  with  the  money  often  earned  by  hard-working 
parents,  to  stuff  their  idle  brains  with  the  pabulum  of 
knowledge  ;  not  to  increase  their  grasp  or  power  of  brain, 
not  to  discipline  it,  not  for  assimilation  into  the  mental 
tissue  to  develop  personal  power,  but  to  fatten  the 
memory,  the  liver  of  the  brain ;  to  fatten  it  Avith 
crammed  facts  until  it  is  sufficiently  expanded  to  insure 
fifty  per  cent,  in  the  examination. 

True  teaching  will  create  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  and 
the  desire  to  quench  this  thirst  will  lead  the  eager 
student  to  the  Pierian  spring.  "  Man  might  be  so  edu- 
cated that  all  his  prepossessions  would  be  truth,  and  all 
his  feelings  virtues." 


SELF-HELP.  165 

Every  bit  of  education  or  culture  is  of  great  advantage 
in  the  struggle  for  existence.  The  microscope  does  not 
create  anything  new,  but  it  reveals  marvels.  To  educate 
the  eye  adds  to  its  magnifying  power  until  it  sees 
beauty  where  before  it  saw  only  ugliness.  It  reveals  a 
world  we  never  suspected,  and  finds  the  greatest  beauty 
even  in  the  commonest  things.  The  eye  of  an  Agassiz 
could  see  worlds  which  the  uneducated  eye  never 
dreamed  of.  The  cultured  hand  can  do  a  thousand 
things  the  uneducated  hand  cannot  do.  It  becomes 
graceful,  steady  of  nerve,  strong,  skillful,  indeed  it 
almost  seems  to  think,  so  animated  is  it  with  intelli- 
gence. The  cultured  will  can  seize,  grasp,  and  hold  the 
possessor,  with  irresistible  power  and  nerve,  to  almost 
superhuman  effort.  The  educated  touch  can  almost 
perform  miracles.  The  educated  taste  can  achieve  won- 
ders almost  past  belief.  What  a  contrast  this,  between 
the  cultured,  logical,  profound,  masterly  reason  of  a 
Gladstone  and  that  of  the  hod-carrier  who  has  never 
developed  or  educated  his  reason  beyond  what  is  neces- 
sary to  enable  him  to  mix  mortar  and  carry  brick. 

"  Culture  comes  from  the  constant  choice  of  the  best 
within  our  reach,"  says  Bulwer.  "  Continue  to  cultivate 
the  mind,  to  sharpen  by  exercise  the  genius,  to  attempt 
to  delight  or  instruct  your  race ;  and,  even  supposing 
you  fall  short  of  every  model  you  set  before  you,  sup- 
posing your  name  moulder  with  your  dust,  still  you  will 
have  passed  life  more  nobly  than  the  unlaborious  herd. 
Grant  that  you  win  not  that  glorious  accident,  '  a  name 
below,'  how  can  you  tell  but  that  you  may  have  fitted 
yourself  for  high  destiny  and  employ,  not  in  the  world 
of  men,  but  of  spirits  ?  The  powers  of  the  mind  cannot 
be  less  immortal  than  the  mere  sense  of  identity  ;  their 
acquisitions  accompany  us  through  the  Eternal  Prog- 
ress, and  we  may  obtain  a  lower  or  a  higher  grade 
hereafter,  in  proportion  as  we  are  more  or  less  fitted  by 
the  exercise  of  our  intellect  to  comprehend  and  execute 
the  solemn  agencies  of  God." 


166  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

But  be  careful  to  avoid  that  over-intellectual  culture 
which  is  purchased  at  the  expense  of  moral  vigor.  An 
observant  professor  of  one  of  our  colleges  has  remarked 
that  "  the  mind  may  be  so  rounded  and  polished  by 
education,  so  well  balanced,  as  not  to  be  energetic  in 
any  one  faculty.  In  other  men  not  thus  trained,  the 
sense  of  deficiency  and  of  the  sharp,  jagged  corners  of 
their  knowledge  leads  to  efforts  to  fill  up  the  chasms, 
rendering  them  at  last  far  better  educated  men  than  the 
polished,  easy-going  graduate  who  has  just  knowledge 
enough  to  x^revent  consciousness  of  his  ignorance. 
AVhile  all  the  faculties  of  the  mind  should  be  culti- 
vated, it  is  yet  desirable  that  it  should  have  two  or 
three  rough-hewn  features  of  massive  strength.  Young 
men  are  too  apt  to  forget  the  great  end  of  life  which  is 
to  be  and  do,  not  to  read  and  brood  over  what  other 
men  have  been  and  done." 

In  a  gymnasium  you  tug,  you  expand  your  chest,  you 
push,  pull,  strike,  run,  in  order  to  develop  your  physi- 
cal self ;  so  you  can  develop  your  moral  and  intellec- 
tual nature  only  by  continued  effort. 

"I  repeat  that  my  object  is  not  to  give  him  know- 
ledge but  to  teach  him  how  to  acquire  it  at  need,"  said 
Eousseau. 

All  learning  is  self-teaching.  It  is  upon  the  working 
of  the  pupil's  own  mind  that  his  progress  in  knowledge 
depends.  The  great  business  of  the  master  is  to  teach 
the  pupil  to  teach  himself. 

"  Thinking,  not  growth,  makes  manhood,"  says  Isaac 
Taylor.  "Accustom  yourself,  therefore,  to  thinking. 
Set  yourself  to  understand  whatever  you  see  or  read. 
To  join  thinking  with  reading  is  one  of  the  first  maxims, 
and  one  of  the  easiest  operations." 

*'  How  few  think  justly  of  the  thinking  few: 
How  many  never  think  who  think  they  do." 


THOMAS   ALVA    EDISON 
"  The  Wizard  of  Menlo  Park." 

"  What  tlie  uorld  wants  is  men  who  have  the  nerve  and  tlie  grit  to  work  and 
wait,  whether  tlie  world  applaud  or  hiss." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

WORK    AND    WAIT. 

What  we  do  upon  some  great  occasion  will  probably  depend  on  what  we 
already  are ;  and  what  we  are  will  be  the  result  of  previous  years  of  self- 
discipline. —H.  P.  LiDDON. 

In  all  matters,  before  beginning,  a  diligent  preparation  should  be  made. 

— CiCKRO. 

I  consider  a  human  soul  without  education  like  marble  in  a  quarry, 
which  shows  none  of  its  inherent  beauties  until  the  skill  of  the  polisher 
sketches  out  the  colors,  makes  the  surface  shine,  and  discovers  every 
ornamental  cloud,  spot,  and  vein  that  runs  throughout  the  body  of  it.  — 
Addison. 

Many  a  genius  has  been  slow  of  growth.  Oaks  that  flourish  for  a  thou- 
sand years  do  not  spring  up  into  beauty  like  a  reed.  —  Geokge  Henry 
Lewes. 

Use  your  gifts  faithfully,  and  they  shall  be  enlarged ;  practice  what  you 
know,  and  you  shall  attain  to  higher  knowledge.  — Arnold. 

All  good  abides  with  him  who  waiteth  wisel^v.  —  Thoreau. 

The  more  haste,  ever  the  worse  speed.  —  Churchill. 

Haste  trips  up  its  own  heels,  fetters  and  stops  itself.  — Seneca.. 

"  Wisely  and  slow;  they  stumble  that  run  fast." 

How  can  we  expect  a  harvest  of  thought  who  have  not  had  the  seed- 
time of  character  ?  —  Thoreau. 

I  call  a  complete  and  generous  education  that  which  fits  a  man  to  per- 
form justly,  skillfully,  and  magnanimously,  all  the  offices,  both  public  and 
private,  of  peace  and  war.  —  Milton. 

The  safe  path  to  excellence  and  success,  in  every  calling,  is  that  of  ap- 
propriate preliminary  education,  diligent  application  to  learn  the  art  and 
assiduity  in  practicing  it.  —  Edward  Everett. 

The  more  you  know,  the  more  you  can  save  3'ourself  and  that  which  be- 
longs to  3'ou,  and  do  more  work  with  less  effort.  —  Charles  Kingsley. 

"  I  WAS  a  mere  cipher  in  that  vast  sea  of  human  en- 
terprise," said  Henry  Bessemer,  speaking  of  his  arrival 
in  London  in  1831.  Although  but  eighteen  years  old, 
and  without  an  acquaintance  in  the  city,  he  soon  made 
work  for  himself  by  inventing  a  process  of  copying  bas- 
reliefs  on  cardboard.     His  method  was  so  simple  that 


168  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

one  could  learn  in  ten  minutes  liow  to  make  a  die  from 
an  embossed  stamp  for  a  penny.  Having  ascertained 
later  that  in  this  way  the  raised  stamps  on  all  official 
papers  in  England  could  easily  be  forged,  he  set  to 
work  and  invented  a  perforated  stamp  which  could  not 
be  forged  nor  removed  from  a  document.  At  the  pub- 
lic stamp  office  he  was  told  by  the  chief  that  the 
government  was  losing  £100,000  a  year  through  the 
custom  of  removing  stamps  from  old  parchments  and 
using  them  again.  The  chief  also  appreciated  the  new 
danger  of  easy  counterfeiting.  So  he  offered  Bessemer 
a  definite  sum  for  his  process  of  perforation,  or  an  office 
for  life  at  eight  hundred  pounds  a  year.  Bessemer 
chose  the  office,  and  hastened  to  tell  the  good  news  to  a 
young  woman  with  whom  he  had  agreed  to  share  his 
fortune.  In  explaining  his  invention,  he  told  how  it 
would  prevent  any  one  from  taking  a  valuable  stamp 
from  a  document  a  hundred  years  old  and  using  it  a 
second  time. 

"  Yes,"  said  his  betrothed,  "I  understand  that ;  but, 
surely,  if  all  stamps  had  a  date  put  upon  them  they 
could  not  at  a  future  time  be  used  without  detection." 

This  was  a  very  short  speech,  and  of  no  sx^ecial  im- 
portance if  we  omit  a  single  word  of  four  letters ;  but, 
like  the  schoolboy's  pins  which  saved  the  lives  of  thou- 
sands of  people  annually  by  not  getting  swallowed,  that 
little  word,  by  keeping  out  of  the  ponderous  minds  of 
the  British  revenue  officers,  had  for  a  long  period  saved 
the  government  the  burden  of  caring  for  an  additional 
income  of  £100,000  a  year.  And  the  same  little  word, 
if  published  in  its  connection,  would  render  Henry's 
perforation  device  of  far  less  value  than  a  last  year's 
bird's  nest.  Henry  felt  proud  of  the  young  woman's 
ingenuity,  and  suggested  the  improvement  at  the  stamp 
office.  As  a  result  his  system  of  perforation  was  aban- 
doned and  he  was  deprived  of  his  promised  office,  the 
government  coolly  making  use  from  that  day  to  this, 


WORK  AND    WAIT.  169 

without  compensation,    of   the  idea  conveyed   by  that 
little  insignificant  word. 

So  Bessemer's  financial  prospects  were  not  very  en- 
couraging ;  but,  realizing  that  the  best  capital  a  young 
man  can  have  is  a  capital  wife,  he  at  once  entered  into 
a  partnership  which  placed  at  his  command  the  com- 
bined ideas  of  two  very  level  heads.  The  result,  after 
years  of  thought  and  experiment,  was  the  Bessemer 
process  of  making  steel  cheaply,  which  has  revolution- 
ized the  iron  industry  throughout  the  world.  His 
method  consists  simply  in  forcing  hot  air  from  below 
into  several  tons  of  melted  pig-iron,  so  as  to  produce  in- 
tense combustion  ;  and  then  adding  enough  spiegel-eisen 
(looking-glass  iron),  an  ore  rich  in  carbon,  to  change  the 
whole  mass  to  steel.  He  discovered  this  simple  process 
only  after  trying  in  vain  much  more  difficult  and  expen- 
sive methods. 

"  All  things  come  round  to  him  who  will  but  wait." 

The  great  lack  of  the  age  is  want  of  thoroughness. 
How  seldom  you  find  a  young  man  or  woman  who  is 
willing  to  take  time  to  prepare  for  his  life  work.  A 
little  education  is  all  they  want,  a  little  smattering  of 
books,  and  then  they  are  ready  for  business. 

"  Can't  wait "  is  characteristic  of  the  century,  and  is 
written  on  everything ;  on  commerce,  on  schools,  on 
society,  on  churches.  Can't  wait  for  a  high  school,  sem- 
inary, or  college.  The  boy  can't  wait  to  become  a  youth, 
nor  the  youth  a  man.  Youth  rush  into  business  with 
no  great  reserve  of  education  or  drill ;  of  course  they  do 
poor,  feverish  work,  and  break  down  in  middle  life,  and 
many  die  of  old  age  in  the  forties.  Everybody  is  in  a 
hurry.  Buildings  are  rushed  up  so  quickly  that  they 
will  not  stand,  and  everything  is  made  "  to  sell." 

Not  long  ago  a  professor  in  one  of  our  universities 
had  a  letter  from  a  young  woman  in  the  West,  asking 
him  if  he  did  not  think  she  could  teach  elocution  if  she 
could  come  to  the  university  and  take  twelve  lessons. 


170  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Our  young  people  of  to-day  want  something,  and  want  it 
quickly.  They  are  not  willing  to  lay  broad,  deep  founda- 
tions. The  weary  years  in  preparatory  school  and  col- 
lege dishearten  them.  They  only  want  a  "  smattering  " 
of  an  education.     But  as  Pope  says,  — 

"  A  little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing  ; 
Drink  deep,  or  taste  not  the  Pierian  spring: 
There  shallow  draughts  intoxicate  the  brain, 
And  drinking  largely  sobers  us  again." 

The  shifts  to  cover  up  ignorance,  and  "the  constant 
trembling  lest  some  blunder  should  expose  one's  empti- 
ness/' are  pitiable.  Short  cuts  and  abridged  methods 
are  the  demand  of  the  hour.  But  the  way  to  shorten 
the  road  to  success  is  to  take  plenty  of  time  to  lay  in 
your  reserve  power.  You  can't  stop  to  forage  your 
provender  as  the  army  advances ;  if  you  do  the  enemy 
will  get  there  first.  Hard  work,  a  definite  aim,  and 
faithfulness,  will  shorten  the  way.  Don't  risk  a  life's 
superstructure  upon  a  day's  foundation. 

Unless  you  have  prepared  yourself  to  profit  by  your 
chance,  the  opportunity  will  only  make  you  ridiculous. 
A  great  occasion  is  valuable  to  you  just  in  proportion  as 
you  have  educated  yourself  to  make  use  of  it.  Beware 
of  that  fatal  facility  of  thoughtless  speech  and  super- 
ficial action  which  has  misled  many  a  young  man  into 
the  belief  that  he  could  make  a  glib  tongue  or  a  deft 
hand  take  the  place  of  deep  study  or  hard  work. 

Patience  is  nature's  motto.  She  works  ages  to  bring 
a  flower  to  perfection.  What  will  she  not  do  for  the 
greatest  of  her  creation  ?  Ages  and  aeons  are  nothing 
to  her,  out  of  them  she  has  been  carving  her  great 
statue,  a  perfect  man. 

Johnson  said  a  man  must  turn  over  half  a  library  to 
write  one  book.  When  an  authoress  told  Wordsworth 
she  had  spent  six  hours  on  a  poem,  he  replied  that  he 
would  have  spent  six  weeks.  Think  of  Bishop  Hall 
spending   thirty  years  on  one  of   his  works.     Owens 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  171 

was  working  on  the  "  Commentary  to  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews  "  for  twenty  years.  Moore  spent  several  weeks 
on  one  of  his  musical  stanzas  which  reads  as  if  it  were 
a  dash  of  genius.  Carlyle  wrote  with  the  utmost  diffi- 
culty, and  never  executed  a  page  of  his  great  histories 
till  he  had  consulted  every  known  authority,  so  that 
every  sentence  is  the  quintessence  of  many  books,  the 
product  of  many  hours  of  drudging  research  in  the  great 
libraries.  To-day,  "  Sartor  Resartus  "  is  everywhere. 
"You  can  get  it  for  a  mere  trifle  at  almost  any  book- 
seller's, and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  copies  are  scat- 
tered over  the  world.  But  when  Carlyle  brought  it  to 
London  in  1851,  it  was  refused  almost  contemptuously 
by  three  prominent  publishers.  At  last  he  managed  to 
get  it  into  "  Eraser's  Magazine,"  the  editor  of  which  con- 
veyed to  the  author  the  pleasing  information  that  his 
work  had  been  received  with  "unqualified  disappro- 
bation." Henry  Ward  Beecher  sent  a  half  dozen  arti- 
cles to  the  publisher  of  a  religious  paper  to  pay  for  his 
subscription,  but  they  were  respectfully  declined.  The 
publishers  of  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  returned  Miss  Al- 
cott's  manuscript,  suggesting  that  she  had  better  stick  to 
teaching.  One  of  the  leading  magazines  ridiculed  Ten- 
nyson's first  poems,  and  consigned  the  young  poet  to 
oblivion.  Only  one  of  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson's  books 
had  a  remunerative  sale.  Washington  Irving  was 
nearly  seventy  years  old  before  the  income  from  his 
books  paid  the  expenses  of  his  household. 

In  some  respects  it  is  very  unfortunate  that  the  old 
system  of  binding  boys  out  to  a  trade  has  been  aban- 
doned. To-day  very  few  boys  learn  any  trade.  They 
pick  up  what  they  know,  as  they  go  along,  just  as  a 
student  crams  for  a  particular  examination,  just  to  "get 
through,"  without  any  effort  to  see  how  much  he  may 
learn  on  any  subject. 

Think  of  an  American  youth  spending  twelve  years 
with  Michael  Angelo,  studying  anatomy  that  he  might 


172  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE, 

create  the  masterpiece  of  all  art ;  or  with  Da  Yinci  de- 
voting ten  years  to  the  model  of  an  equestrian  statue 
that  he  might  master  the  anatomy  of  the  horse.  Most 
young  American  artists  would  expect,  in  a  quarter  of 
that  time,  to  sculpture  an  Apollo  Belvidere.  While 
Michael  Angelo  was  painting  the  Sistine  Chapel  he 
would  not  allow  himself  time  for  meals  or  to  dress 
or  undress  ;  but  he  kept  bread  within  reach  that  he 
might  eat  when  hunger  impelled,  and  he  slept  in  his 
clothes. 

A  rich  man  asked  Howard  Burnett  to  do  a  little  thing 
for  his  album.  Burnett  complied  and  charged  a  thou- 
sand francs.  "  But  it  took  you  only  five  minutes,"  ob- 
jected the  rich  man.  "  Yes,  but  it  took  me  thirty  years 
to  learn  how  to  do  it  in  five  minutes." 

"  I  prepared  that  sermon,"  said  a  young  sprig  of  di- 
vinity, "  in  half  an  hour,  and  preached  it  at  once,  and 
thought  nothing  of  it."  "  In  that,"  said  an  older  min- 
ister, "  your  hearers  are  at  one  with  you,  for  they  also 
thought  nothing  of  it." 

What  the  age  wants  is  men  who  have  the  nerve  and 
the  grit  to  work  and  wait,  whether  the  world  applaud  or 
hiss.  It  wants  a  Bancroft,  who  can  spend  twenty-six 
years  on  the  "  History  of  the  United  States  ;  "  a  Noah 
Webster,  Avho  can  devote  thirty-six  years  to  a  dictionary ; 
a  Gibbon,  who  can  plod  for  twenty  years  on  the  "  Decline 
and  Fall  of  the  Eoman  Empire  ;  "  a  Mirabeau,  who  can 
struggle  on  for  forty  years  before  he  has  a  chance  to 
show  his  vast  reserve,  destined  to  shake  an  empire ;  a 
Farragut,  a  Yon  Moltke,  who  have  the  persistence  to 
work  and  wait  for  half  a  century  for  their  first  great 
opportunities  ;  a  Garfield,  burning  his  lamp  fifteen  min- 
utes later  than  a  rival  student  in  his  academy ;  a  Grant, 
fighting  on  in  heroic  silence,  when  denounced  by  his 
brother  generals  and  politicians  everywhere ;  a  Field's 
untiring  perseverance,  spending  years  and  a  fortune  lay- 
ing a  cable  when   all  the  world  called  him  a  fool ;  a 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  173 

Michael  Angelo,  working  seven  long  years  decorating 
the  Sistine  Chapel  with  his  matchless  ^'  Creation  "  and 
the  "  Last  Judgment,"  refusing  all  remuneration  there- 
for, lest  his  pencil  might  catch  the  taint  of  avarice ;  a 
Titian,  spending  seven  years  on  the  "  Last  Supper ; " 
a  Stephenson,  working  fifteen  years  on  a  locomotive  ;  a 
Watt,  twenty  years  on  a  condensing  engine ;  a  Lady 
Franklin,  working  incessantly  for  twelve  long  years  to 
rescue  her  husband  from  the  j^olar  seas ;  a  Thurlow 
Weed,  walking  two  miles  through  the  snow  with  rags 
tied  around  his  feet  for  shoes,  to  borrow  the  history  of 
the  French  Revolution,  and  eagerly  devouring  it  before 
the  sap-bush  fire ;  a  Milton,'  elaborating  "  Paradise 
Lost "  in  a  world  he  could  not  see,  and  then  selling  it 
for  fifteen  pounds ;  a  Thackeray,  struggling  on  cheer- 
fully after  his  "  Vanity  Fair  "  was  refused  by  a  dozen 
publishers  ;  a  Balzac,  toiling  and  waiting  in  a  lonely  gar- 
ret, whom  neither  poverty,  debt,  nor  hunger  could  dis- 
courage or  intimidate ;  not  daunted  by  privations,  not 
hindered  by  discouragements.  It  wants  men  who  can 
work  and  wait. 

When  a  young  lawyer  Daniel  Webster  once  looked 
in  vain  through  all  the  law  libraries  near  him,  and 
then  ordered  at  an  expense  of  fifty  dollars  the  neces- 
sary books,  to  obtain  authorities  and  precedents  in  a 
case  in  which  his  client  was  a  poor  blacksmith.  He 
won  his  cause,  but,  on  account  of  the  poverty  of  his 
client,  only  charged  fifteen  dollars,  thus  losing  heavily 
on  the  books  bought,  to  say  nothing  of  his  time. 
Years  after,  as  he  was  passing  through  New  York 
city,  he  was  consulted  by  Aaron'  Burr  on  an  important 
but  puzzling  case  then  pending  before  the  Supreme 
Court.  He  saw  in  a  moment  that  it  was  just  like  the 
blacksmith's  case,  an  intricate  question  of  title,  which 
he  had  solved  so  thoroughly  that  it  was  to  him  now  as 
simple  as  the  multiplication  table.  Going  back  to  the 
time  of  Charles  II.  he  gave  the  law  and  precedents  in- 


174  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

volved  with  such  readiness  and  accuracy  of  sequence 
that  Burr  asked  in  great  surprise  if  he  had  been  con- 
sulted before  in  the  case.  "Most  certainly  not,"  he 
replied,  "  I  never  heard  of  your  case  till  this  evening." 
"  Very  well,"  said  Burr,  "  proceed ;  "  and,  when  he 
had  finished,  Webster  received  a  fee  that  paid  him  lib- 
erally for  all  the  time  and  trouble  he  had  spent  for  his 
early  client. 

Albert  Bierstadt  first  crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains 
with  a  band  of  pioneers  in  1859,  making  sketches  for  the 
paintings  of  western  scenes  for  which  he  had  become 
famous.  As  he  followed  the  trail  to  Pike's  Peak,  he 
gazed  in  wonder  upon  the  enormous  herds  of  buffaloes 
which  dotted  the  j^lains  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
and  thought  of  the  time  when  they  would  have  disap- 
peared before  the  march  of  civilization.  The  thought 
haunted  him  and  found  its  final  embodiment  in  "'  The 
Last  of  the  Buffaloes  "  in  1890.  To  perfect  this  great 
work  he  had  spent  twenty  years. 

Everything  which  endures,  which  will  stand  the  test 
of  time,  must  have  a  deep,  solid  foundation.  In  Rome 
the  foundation  is  often  the  most  expensive  part  of  an 
edifice,  so  deep  must  they  dig  to  build  on  the  living 
rock. 

Pifty  feet  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument  is  under  ground  ; 
unseen  and  unappreciated  by  those  who  tread  about 
that  historic  shaft,  but  it  is  this  foundation,  apparently 
thrown  away,  which  enables  it  to  stand  uj)right,  true 
to  the  plumb-line  through  all  the  tempests  that  lash  its 
granite  sides.  A  large  part  of  every  successful  life 
must  be  spent  in  laying  foundation  stones  under  ground. 
Success  is  the  child  of  drudgery  and  perseverance  and 
depends  upon  "  knowing  how  long  it  takes  to  succeed." 
Havelock  joined  the  army  at  twenty  -  eight,  and  for 
thirty-four  years  worked  and  waited  for  his  opportu- 
nity ;  conscious  of  his  power,  "  fretting  as  a  subaltern 
while  he  saw  drunkards  and  fools  put  above  his  head." 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  175 

But  during  all  these  years  he  was  fitting  himself  to  lead 
that  marvelous  march  to  Lucknow. 

It  was  many  years  of  drudgery  and  reading  a  thou- 
sand volumes  that  enabled  George  Eliot  to  get  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  "Daniel  Deronda."  How  came 
writers  to  be  famous  ?  By  writing  for  years  without 
any  pay  at  all ;  by  writing  hundreds  of  pages  for  mere 
practice  work  ;  by  working  like  galley  -  slaves  at  lit- 
erature for  half  a  lifetime.  It  was  working  and  wait- 
ing many  long  and  weary  years  that  put  one  hundred 
and  twenty -five  thousand  dollars  into  "  The  Angelus." 
Millet's  first  attempts  were  mere  daubs,  the  later  were 
worth  fortunes.  Schiller  "never  could  get  done." 
Dante  sees  himself  "  growing  lean  over  his  Divine 
Comedy."  It  is  working  and  waiting  that  gives  per- 
fection. 

"I  do  not  remember,"  said  Beecher,  "a  book  in  all 
the  depths  of  learning,  nor  a  scrap  in  literature,  nor  a 
mark  in  all  the  schools  of  art,  from  which  its  author  has 
derived  a  permanent  renown,  that  is  not  known  to  have 
been  long  and  patiently  elaborated." 

Endurance  is  a  much  better  test  of  character  than 
any  one  act  of  heroism,  however  noble. 

The  pianist  Thalberg  said  he  never  ventured  to  per- 
form one  of  his  celebrated  pieces  in  public  until  he 
had  played  it  at  least  fifteen  hundred  times.  He  laid 
no  claim  whatever  to  genius  ;  he  said  it  was  all  a  ques- 
tion of  hard  work.  The  accomplishments  of  such  in- 
dustry, such  perseverance,  would  put  to  shame  many  a 
man  who  claims  genius. 

Before  Edmund  Kean  would  'consent  to  appear  in 
that  character  which  he  acted  with  such  consummate 
skill.  The  Gentleman  Villain,  he  practiced  constantly 
before  a  glass,  studying  expression  for  a  year  and  a 
half.  When  he  appeared  upon  the  stage,  Byron,  who 
went  to  see  him  with  Moore,  said  he  never  looked  upon 
so  fearful  and  wicked  a  face.     As  the  great  actor  went 


176  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

on  to  delineate  the  terrible  consequences  of  sin,  Byron 
fainted. 

"  For  years  I  was  in  my  place  of  business  by  sunrise," 
said  a  wealthy  banker  who  had  begun  without  a  dollar ; 
"and  often  I  did  not  leave  it  for  fifteen  or  eighteen 
hours." 

Festina  lente  —  hasten  slowly  —  is  a  good  Latin 
motto.  -  Patience,  it  is  said,  changes  the  mulberry  leaf 
to  satin.  The  giant  oak  on  the  hillside  was  detained 
months  or  years  in  its  upward  growth  while  its  roots 
took  a  great  turn  around  some  rock,  in  order  to  gain  a 
hold  by  which  the  tree  was  anchored  to  withstand  the 
storms  of  centuries.  Da  Vinci  spent  four  years  on  the 
head  of  Mona  Lisa,  perhaps  the  most  beautiful  ever 
painted,  but  he  left  therein  an  artistic  thought  for  all  time. 

Said  Captain  Bingham :  "  You  can  have  no  idea  of 
the  wonderful  machine  that  the  German  army  is  and 
how  well  it  is  prepared  for  war.  A  chart  is  made  out 
which  shows  just  what  must  be  done  in  the  case  of 
wars  with  the  different  nations.  And  every  officer's 
place  in  the  scheme  is  laid  out  beforehand.  There  is  a 
schedule  of  trains  which  will  supersede  all  other  sched- 
ules the  moment  war  is  declared,  and  this  is  so  arranged 
that  the  commander  of  the  army  here  could  telegraph 
to  any  officer  to  take  such  a  train  and  go  to  such  a 
place  at  a  moment's  notice.  When  the  Franco-Prus- 
sian war  was  declared.  Von  Moltke  was  awakened  at 
midnight  and  told  of  the  fact.     He  said  coolly  to  the 

official  who  aroused  him,  '  Go  to  pigeonhole  No. in 

my  safe  and  take  a  paper  from  it  and  telegraph  as  there 
directed  to  the  different  troops  of  the  empire.'  He  then 
turned  over  and  went  to  sleep  and  awoke  at  his  usual 
hour  in  the  morning.  Every  one  else  in  Berlin  was 
excited  about  the  war,  but  Von  Moltke  took  his  morn- 
ing walk  as  usual,  and  a  friend  who  met  him  said, 
'General,  you  seem  to  be  taking  it  very  easy.  Are  n't 
you  afraid  of  the  situation  ?     I  should  think  you  would 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  Ill 

be  busy.'  '  Ah/  replied  Von  Moltke,  '  all  of  my  work 
for  this  time  has  been  done  long  beforehand  and  every- 
thing that  can  be  done  now  has  been  done/  " 

That  is  done  soon  enough  which  is  done  well.  Soon 
ripe,  soon  rotten.  He  that  would  enjoy  the  fruit  must 
not  gather  the  flower.  He  who  is  impatient  to  become 
his  own  master  is  more  likely  to  become  his  own  slave. 
Better  believe  yourself  a  dunce  and  work  away  than  a 
genius  and  be  idle.  One  year  of  trained  thinking  is 
worth  more  than  a  whole  college  course  of  mental  ab- 
sorption of  a  vast  series  of  undigested  facts.  The  fa- 
cility with  which  the  world  swallows  up  the  ordinary 
college  graduate  who  thought  he  was  going  to  dazzle 
mankind  should  bid  you  pause  and  reflect.  But  just 
as  certainly  as  man  was  created  not  to  crawl  on  all 
fours  in  the  depths  of  primeval  forests,  but  to  develop 
his  mental  and  moral  faculties,  just  so  certainly  he 
needs  education,  and  only  by  means  of  it  will  he  become 
what  he  ought  to  become,  —  man,  in  the  highest  sense  of 
the  word.  Ignorance  is  not  simply  the  negation  of 
knowledge,  it  is  the  misdirection  of  the  mind.  "One 
step  in  knowledge,"  says  Bulwer,  "is  one  step  from 
sin ;  one  step  from  sin  is  one  step  nearer  to  Heaven." 

A  learned  clergyman  was  thus  accosted  by  an  illit- 
erate preacher  who  despised  education  :  "  Sir,  you  have 
been  to  college,  I  presume  ?  "  "  Yes,  sir,"  was  the  re- 
ply. "  I  am  thankful,"  said  the  former,  "  that  the 
Lord  opened  my  mouth  without  any  learning."  "A 
similar  event,"  retorted  the  clergyman,  "  happened  in 
Balaam's  time." 

"  If  a  cloth  were  drawn  around  the  eyes  of  Praxiteles' 
statue  of  Love,"  says  Bulwer,  "the  face  looked  grave 
and  sad ;  but  as  the  bandage  was  removed,  a  beautiful 
smile  would  overspread  the  countenance.  Even  so  does 
the  removal  of  the  veil  of  ignorance  from  the  eyes  of 
the  mind  bring  radiant  happiness  to  the  heart  of  man." 

A  young  man  just  graduated  told  the  President  of 


178  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Trinity  College  that  lie  had  completed  his  education, 
and  had  come  to  say  good-by.  "  Indeed,"  said  the 
President,  "  I  have  just  begun  my  education." 

Many  an  extraordinary  man  has  been  made  out  of  a 
very  ordinary  boy ;  but  in  order  to  accomplish  this  we 
must  begin  with  him  while  he  is  young.  It  is  simply 
astonishing  what  training  will  do  for  a  rough,  uncouth, 
and  even  dull  lad,  if  he  has  good  material  in  him,  and 
comes  under  the  tutelage  of  a  skilled  educator  before  his 
habits  have  become  confirmed.  Even  a  few  weeks'  or 
months'  drill  of  the  rawest  and  roughest  recruits  in  the 
late  Civil  War  so  straightened  and  dignified  stooping 
and  uncouth  soldiers,  and  made  them  so  manly,  erect, 
and  courteous  in  their  bearing,  that  their  own  friends 
scarcely  knew  them.  If  this  change  is  so  marked  in 
the  youth  who  has  grown  to  maturity,  what  a  miracle 
is  possible  in  the  lad  who  is  taken  early  and  put  under 
a  course  of  drill  and  systematic  training,  both  physical, 
mental,  and  moral.  How  many  a  man  who  is  now  in 
the  penitentiary,  in  the  poorhouse,  or  among  the  tramps, 
or  living  out  a  miserable  existence  in  the  slums  of  our 
cities,  bent  over,  uncouth,  rough,  slovenly,  has  possibil- 
ities slumbering  within  the  rags,  which  would  have 
developed  him  into  a  magnificent  man,  an  ornament  to 
the  human  race  instead  of  a  foul  blot  and  scar,  had  he 
only  been  fortunate  enough  early  in  life  to  have  come 
under  efficient  and  systematic  training. 

Laziness  begins  in  cobwebs  and  ends  in  iron  chains. 
The  more  business  a  man  has,  the  more  he  can  do,  for 
he  learns  to  economize  his  time. 

The  industry  that  acquired  riches,  according  to  a  wise 
teacher,  the  patience  that  is  required  in  obtaining  them, 
the  reserved  self-control,  the  measuring  of  values,  the 
sympathy  felt  for  fellow-toilers,  the  knowledge  of  what 
a  dollar  costs  to  the  average  man,  the  memory  of  it 
—  all  these  things  are  preservative.  But  woe  to  the 
young  farmer  who  hates  farming ;  does  not  like  sowing 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  179 

and  reaping ;  is  impatient  with  tke  dilatory  and  slow 
path  to  a  small  though  secure  fortune  in  the  neighbor- 
hood where  he  was  born,  and  comes  to  the  city,  hoping 
to  become  suddenly  rich,  thinking  that  he  can  break 
into  the  palace  of  wealth  and  rob  it  of  its  golden 
treasures  ! 

Edison  described  his  repeated  efforts  to  make  the 
phonograph  reproduce  an  aspirated  sound,  and  added  : 
"  From  eighteen  to  twenty  hours  a  day  for  the  last 
seven  months  I  have  worked  on  this  single  word  '  specia.' 
I  said  into  the  phonograph  '  specia,  specia,  specia,'  but 
the  instrument  responded  '  pecia,  pecia,  pecia.'  It  was 
enough  to  drive  one  mad.  But  I  held  firm,  and  I  have 
succeeded." 

The  road  to  distinction  must  be  paved  with  years  of 
self-denial  and  hard  work. 

Horace  Mann,  the  great  author  of  the  common  school 
system  of  Massachusetts,  was  a  remarkable  example  of 
that  pluck  and  patience  which  can  work  and  wait.  His 
only  inheritance  was  poverty  and  hard  work.  But  he 
had  an  unquenchable  thirst  for  knowledge  and  a  deter- 
mination to  get  on  in  the  world.  He  braided  straw  to 
get  money  to  buy  books  which  his  soul  thirsted  for. 

To  Jonas  Chickering  there  were  no  trifles  in  the 
manufacture  of  a  piano.  Others  might  work  for  sala- 
ries, but  he  was  working  for  fame  and  fortune.  Neither 
time  nor  pains  were  of  any  account  to  him  compared 
with  accuracy  and  knowledge.  He  could  afford  to  work 
and  wait,  for  quality,  not  quantity,  was  his  aim.  Fifty 
years  ago  the  piano  was  a  miserable  instrument  com- 
pared with  the  perfect  mechanism  of  to-day.  Chicker- 
ing was  determined  to  make  a  piano  which  would  yield 
the  fullest,  richest  volume  of  melody  with  the  least 
exertion  to  the  x^layer,  and  one  which  would  withstand 
atmospheric  changes  and  preserve  its  purity  and  truth- 
fulness of  tone.  And  he  strove  patiently  and  persist- 
ently till  he  succeeded. 


180  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  Thy  life,  wert  thou  the  pitifullest  of  all  the  sons  of 
earth,  is  no  idle  dream,  but  a  solemn  reality,"  said 
Carlyle.  "  It  is  thy  own.  It  is  all  thou  hast  to  com- 
fort eternity  with.  Work  then  like  a  star,  unhasting, 
yet  unresting.'' 

Gladstone  was  bound  to  win  ;  although  he  had  sjoent 
many  years  of  preparation  for  his  life  work,  in  spite  of 
the  consciousness  of  marvelous  natural  endowments 
which  would  have  been  deemed  sufficient  by  many  young 
men,  and  notwithstanding  he  had  gained  the  coveted 
prize  of  a  seat  in  Parliament,  yet  he  decided  to  make 
himself  master  of  the  situation ;  and  amid  all  his  public 
and  private  duties,  he  not  only  spent  eleven  terms  more 
in  the  study  of  the  law,  but  he  studied  Greek  constantly 
and  read  every  well  written  book  or  paper  he  could  ob- 
tain, so  determined  was  he  that  his  life  should  be 
rounded  out  to  its  fullest  measure,  and  that  his  mind 
should  have  broad  and  liberal  culture. 

Emperor  William  I.  was  not  a  genius,  but  the  secret 
of  his  power  lay  in  tireless  perseverance.  A  friend  says 
of  him,  "When  I  passed  the  palace  at  Berlin  night 
after  night,  however  late,  I  always  saw  that  grand  im- 
perial figure  standing  beside  the  green  lamp,  and  I  used 
to  say  to  myself,  '  That  is  how  the  imperial  crown  of 
Germany  was  won.' " 

Ole  Bull  said,  "  If  I  practice  one  day,  I  can  see  the 
result.  If  I  practice  two  days  my  friends  can  see  it ; 
if  I  practice  three  days  the  great  public  can  see  it." 

The  habit  of  seizing  every  bit  of  knowledge,  no  mat- 
ter how  insignificant  it  may  seem  at  the  time,  every 
opportunity,  every  occasion,  and  grinding  them  all  up 
into  experience,  cannot  be  overestimated.  You  will 
find  use  for  all  of  it.  Webster  once  repeated  an  an- 
ecdote with  effect  which  he  heard  fourteen  years  be- 
fore, and  which  he  had  not  thought  of  in  the  mean  time. 
It  exactly  fitted  the  occasion.  "  It  is  an  ill  mason  that 
rejects  any  stone." 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  181 

Webster  was  once  urged  to  speak  on  a  subject  of  great 
importance,  but  refused,  saying  lie  was  very  busy  and 
had  no  time  to  master  the  subject.  "  But,"  replied  his 
friend,  "  a  very  few  words  from  you  would  do  much  to 
awaken  public  attention  to  it."  Webster  replied,  "  If 
there  be  so  much  weight  in  my  words,  it  is  because  I  do 
not  allow  myself  to  speak  on  any  subject  until  my  mind 
is  imbued  with  it."  On  one  occasion  Webster  made  a 
remarkable  speech  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society 
at  Harvard,  when  a  book  was  presented  to  him ;  but 
after  he  had  gone,  his  "impromptu"  speech,  carefully 
written  out,  was  found  in  the  book  which  he  had  for- 
gotten to  take  away. 

Demosthenes  was  once  urged  to  speak  on  a  great  and 
sudden  emergency,  but  replied,  "  I  am  not  prepared." 
In  fact,  it  was  thought  by  many  that  Demosthenes  did 
not  possess  any  genius  whatever,  because  he  never 
allowed  himself  to  speak  on  any  subject  without  thor- 
ough preparation.  In  any  meeting  or  assembly,  when 
called  upon,  he  would  never  rise,  even  to  make  remarks, 
it  was  said,  without  previously  preparing  himself. 

Alexander  Hamilton  said,  "Men  give  me  credit  for 
genius.  All  the  genius  I  have  lies  just  in  this  :  when 
I  have  a  subject  in  hand  I  study  it  profoundly.  Day 
and  night  it  is  before  me.  I  explore  it  in  all  its  bear- 
ings. My  mind  becomes  pervaded  with  it.  Then  the 
effort  which  I  make  the  people  are  pleased  to  call  the 
fruit  of  genius  ;  it  is  the  fruit  of  labor  and  thought." 
The  law  of  labor  is  equally  binding  on  genius  and  me- 
diocrity. 

Are  the  results  so  distant  that  you  delay  the  prepa- 
ration in  the  hope  that  fortuitous  good  luck  may  make  it 
unnecessary  ?  As  well  might  the  husbandman  delay 
sowing  his  seed  until  the  spring  and  summer  are  past 
and  the  ground  hardened  by  the  frosts  of  a  rigorous 
winter.  As  well  might  one  who  is  desirous  of  enjoy- 
ing firm  health  inoculate  his  system  with  the  seeds  of 


182  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

disease,  and  expect  at  such  time  as  he  may  see  fit  to 
recover  from  its  effects,  and  banish  the  malady.  Nela- 
ton,  the  great  surgeon,  said  that  if  he  had  four  minutes 
in  which  to  perform  an  operation  on  which  a  life  de- 
pended, he  would  take  one  minute  to  consider  how  best 
to  do  it. 

"  Many  men,"  says  Longfellow,  "  do  not  allow  their 
princii)les  to  take  root,  but  pull  them  up  every  now  and 
then,  as  children  do  flowers  they  have  planted,  to  see  if 
they  are  growing."     We  must  not  only  work,  but  wait. 

"  The  spruce  young  spark,"  says  Sizer,  "  who  thinks 
chiefly  of  his  mustache  and  boots  and  shiny  hat,  of 
getting  along  nicely  and  easily  during  the  day,  and  talk- 
ing about  the  theatre,  the  opera,  or  a  fast  horse,  ridicul- 
ing the  faithful  young  fellow  who  came  to  learn  the 
business  and  make  a  man  of  himself,  because  he  will 
not  join  in  wasting  his  time  in  dissipation,  will  see  the 
day,  if  his  useless  life  is  not  earlier  blasted  by  vicious 
indulgences,  when  he  will  be  glad  to  accept  a  situation 
from  his  fellow-clerk  whom  he  now  ridicules  and  affects 
to  despise,  when  the  latter  shall  stand  in  the  firm,  dis- 
pensing benefits  and  acquiring  fortune." 

"  I  have  been  watching  the  careers  of  young  men  by 
the  thousand  in  this  busy  city  of  New  York  for  over 
thirty  years,"  said  Dr.  Cuyler,  "  and  I  find  that  the  chief 
difference  between  the  successful  and  the  failures  lies  in 
the  single  element  of  staying  power.  Permanent  suc- 
cess is  oftener  won  by  holding  on  than  by  sudden  dash, 
however  brilliant.  The  easily  discouraged,  who  are 
pushed  back  by  a  straw,  are  all  the  time  dropping  to  the 
rear  —  to  perish  or  to  be  carried  along  on  the  stretcher 
of  charity.  They  who  understand  and  practice  Abra- 
ham Lincoln's  homely  maxim  of  *  pegging  away '  have 
achieved  the  solidest  success." 

"  When  a  man  has  done  his  work,"  says  Euskin,  "  and 
nothing  can  any  way  be  materially  altered  in  his  fate, 
let  him  forget  his  toil,  and  jest  with  his  fate  if  he  will ; 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  183 

but  what  excuse  can  you  find  for  willfulness  of  thought 
at  the  very  cime  when  every  crisis  of  fortune  hangs  on 
your  decisions  ?  A  youth  thoughtless,  when  all  the 
happiness  of  his  home  forever  depends  on  the  chances 
or  the  passions  of  the  hour  !  A  youth  thoughtless, 
when  the  career  of  all  his  days  depends  on  the  oppor- 
tunity of  a  moment !  A  youth  thoughtless,  when  his 
every  action  is  a  foundation-stone  of  future  conduct, 
and  every  imagination  a  foundation  of  life  or  death ! 
Be  thoughtless  in  any  after  years,  rather  than  now  — 
though,  indeed,  there  is  only  one  place  where  a  man  may 
be  nobly  thoughtless,  his  deathbed.  Nothing  should 
ever  be  left  to  be  done  there." 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  became  so  discouraged  be- 
cause he  did  not  advance  in  the  army  that  he  applied 
for  a  much  inferior  position  in  the  customs  department, 
but  was  refused.  Napoleon  had  applied  for  every  va- 
cant position  for  seven  years  before  he  was  recognized, 
but  meanwhile  he  studied  with  all  his  might,  supple- 
menting what  was  considered  a  thorough  military  edu- 
cation by  researches  and  reflections  which  in  later  years 
enabled  him  easily  to  teach  the  art  of  war  to  veterans 
who  had  never  dreamed  of  his  novel  combinations. 

Reserves  which  carry  us  through  great  emergencies 
are  the  result  of  long  working  and  long  waiting.  Coll- 
yer  declares  that  reserves  mean  to  a  man  also  achieve- 
ment, —  "  the  power  to  do  the  grandest  thing  possible 
to  your  nature  when  you  feel  you  must,  or  some  pre- 
cious thing  will  be  lost,  —  to  do  well  always,  but  best 
in  the  crisis  on  which  all  things  turn;  to  stand  the 
strain  of  a  long  fight,  and  still  find  you  have  something 
left,  and  so  to  never  know  you  are  beaten,  because  you 
never  are  beaten."  Every  defeat  is  a  Waterloo  to  him 
who  has  no  reserves. 

He  only  is  independent  in  action  who  has  been  ear- 
nest and  thorough  in  preparation  and  self-culture.  "  Not 
for  school,  but  for  life,  we  learn ;  "  and  our  habits  —  of 


184  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

promptness,  earnestness,  and  thoroughness,  or  of  tardi- 
ness, fickleness,  and  superficiality  —  are  the  things  ac- 
quired most  readily  and  longest  retained. 

"  One  who  reads  the  chronicles  of  discoveries  is 
struck  with  the  prominent  part  that  accident  has  played 
in  such  annals.  For  some  of  the  most  useful  processes 
and  machinery  the  world  is  indebted  to  apparently 
chance  occurrences.  Inventors  in  search  of  one  object 
have  failed  in  their  quest,  but  have  stumbled  on  some- 
thing more  valuable  than  that  for  which  they  were 
looking.  Saul  is  not  the  only  man  who  has  gone  in 
search  of  asses  and  found  a  kingdom.  Astrologers 
sought  to  read  from  the  heavens  the  fate  of  men  and 
the  fortune  of  nations,  and  they  led  to  a  knowledge  of 
astronomy.  Alchemists  were  seeking  for  the  philoso- 
pher's stone,  and  from  their  efforts  sprung  the  science 
of  chemistry.  Men  explored  the  heavens  for  something 
to  explain  irregularities  in  the  movements  of  the  planets, 
and  discovered  a  star  other  than  the  one  for  which  they 
were  looking.  A  careless  glance  at  such  facts  might 
encourage  the  delusion  that  aimless  straying  in  bypaths 
is  quite  as  likely  to  be  rewarded  as  is  the  steady  press- 
ing forward,  with  fixed  purpose,  towards  some  definite 
goal. 

"  But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  men  who  made 
the  accidental  discoveries  were  men  who  were  looking 
for  something.  The  unexpected  achievement  was  but 
the  return  for  the  toil  after  what  was  attained.  Others 
might  have  encountered  the  same  facts,  but  only  the 
eye  made  eager  by  the  strain  of  long  watching  would 
be  quick  to  note  the  meaning.  If  vain  search  for  hid- 
den treasure  has  no  other  recompense,  it  at  least  gives 
ability  to  detect  the  first  gleam  of  the  true  metal.  Men 
may  wake  at  times  surprised  to  find  themselves  famous, 
but  it  was  the  work  they  did  before  going  to  sleep,  and 
not  the  slumber,  that  gave  the  eminence.  When  the 
ledge  has  been  drilled  and  loaded  and  the  proper  con- 


WORK  AND   WAIT.  185 

nections  have  been  made,  a  child's  touch  on  the  electric 
key  may  be  enough  to  annihilate  the  obstacle,  but  with- 
out the  long  preparation  the  pressure  of  a  giant's  hand 
would  be  without  effect. 

"  In  the  search  for  truth  and  the  shaping  of  character 
the  principle  remains  the  same  as  in  science  and  litera- 
ture. Trivial  causes  are  followed  by  wonderful  results, 
but  it  is  only  the  merchantman  who  is  on  the  watch 
for  goodly  pearls  who  is  represented  as  finding  the 
pearl  of  great  price." 

To  vary  the  language  of  another,  the  three  great 
essentials  to  success  in  mental  and  physical  labor  are 
Practice,  Patience,  and  Perseverance,  but  the  greatest 
of  these  is  Perseverance. 

Let  us,  then,  be  up  and  doing, 

With  a  heart  for  any  fate ; 
Still  achieving,  still  pursuing. 

Learn  to  labor  and  to  wait. 

Longfellow. 


CHAPTER  X. 


CLEAR     GRIT. 


I  shall  show  the  cinders  of  my  spirits 

Through  the  ashes  of  my  chance. 

Shakespeare. 
What  though  ten  thousand  faint, 

Desert,  or  yield,  or  in  weak  terror  flee ! 
Heed  not  the  panic  of  the  multitude ; 

Thine  be  the  captain's  watchword,  —  Victory ! 

HORATIUS  BONAR. 

Better  to  stem  with  heart  and  hand 
The  roaring  tide  of  life,  than  lie, 
Unmindful,  on  its  flower}'-  strand, 
Of  God's  occasions  drifting  by! 
Better  with  naked  nerve  to  bear 
The  needles  of  this  goading  air. 
Than  in  the  lap  of  sensual  ease  forego 
The  godlike  power  to  do,  the  godlike  aim  to  know. 

Whittier. 
Let  fortune  empty  her  whole  quiver  on  me, 
I  have  a  soul  that,  like  an  ample  shield, 
Can  take  in  all,  and  verge  enough  for  more. 

Dryden. 
There  's  a  brave  fellow !     There 's  a  man  of  pluck ! 
A  man  who  's  not  afraid  to  say  his  say, 
Though  a  whole  town  's  against  him. 

Longfellow. 
Our  greatest  glor^'-  is  not  in  never  falling,  but  in  rising  every  time  we 
fall.  — Confucius. 

Attempt  the  end  and  never  stand  to  doubt; 
Nothing 's  so  hard  but  search  will  find  it  out. 

Herrick. 

The  barriers  are  not  yet  erected  which  shall  say  to  aspiring  talent, 
"  Thus  far  and  no  farther."  —  Beethoven. 

"  Friends  and  comrades,"  said  Pizarro,  as  he  turned 
toward  the  south,  after  tracing  with  his  sword  upon  the 
sand  a  line  from  east  to  west,  "  on  that  side  are  toil. 


ANDREW   JACKSON 
"Old  Hickory." 

"  Stick  to  your  aim  :  tlie  mongrel's  hold  will  slip, 
But  only  crowbars  loose  the  bull-dog's  grip." 
"  The  nerve  that  never  relaxes,  the  eye  that  never  blenches,  the  thought  that 
never  wanders,  —  these  are  the  masters  of  victory." 


CLEAR  GRIT.  187 

hunger,  nakedness,  the  drenching  storm,  desertion,  and 
death  ;  on  this  side,  ease  and  pleasure.  There  lies  Peru 
with  its  riches  ;  here,  Panama  and  its  poverty.  Choose, 
each  man,  what  best  becomes  a  brave  Castilian.  For 
my  part,  I  go  to  the  south."  So  saying,  he  crossed  the 
line  and  was  followed  by  thirteen  Spaniards  in  armor. 
Thus,  on  the  little  island  of  Gallo  in  the  Pacific,  when 
his  men  were  clamoring  to  return  to  Panama,  did 
Pizarro  and  his  few  volunteers  resolve  to  stake  their 
lives  upon  the  success  of  a  desperate  crusade  against 
the  powerful  empire  of  the  Incas.  At  the  time  they 
had  not  even  a  vessel  to  transport  them  to  the  country 
they  wished  to  conquer.  Is  it  necessary  to  add  that 
all  difficulties  yielded  at  last  to  such  resolute  deter- 
mination ? 

"  Perseverance  is  a  Roman  virtue, 
That  wins  each  godlike  act,  and  plucks  success 
E'en  from  the  spear-proof  crest  of  rugged  danger." 

At  a  time  when  abolitionists  were  dangerously  un- 
popular, a  crowd  of  brawny  Cape  Cod  fishermen  had 
made  such  riotous  demonstrations  that  all  the  speakers 
announced,  except  Stephen  Foster  and  Lucy  Stone,  had 
fled  from  an  open-air  platform.  "  You  had  better  run, 
Stephen,"  said  she ;  "  they  are  coming."  "  But  who 
will  take  care  of  you  ?  "  asked  Foster.  "  This  gentle- 
man will  take  care  of  me,"  she  replied,  calmly  laying 
her  hand  within  the  arm  of  a  burly  rioter  with  a  club, 
who  had  just  sprung  upon  the  platform.  "  Wh —  what 
did  you  say  ?  "  stammered  the  astonished  rowdy,  as  he 
looked  at  the  little  woman  ;  "  yes,  I  '11  take  care  of  you, 
and  no  one  shall  touch  a  hair  of  your  head."  With  this 
he  forced  a  way  for  her  through  the  crowd,  and,  at  her 
earnest  request,  placed  her  upon  a  stump  and  stood 
guard  with  his  club  while  she  delivered  an  address  so 
effective  that  the  audience  offered  no  further  violence, 
and  even  took  up  a  collection  of  twenty  dollars  to  repay 
Mr.  Foster  for  the  damage  his  clothes  had  received 
when  the  riot  was  at  its  height. 


188  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"When  you  get  into  a  tight  place  and  everything 
goes  against  you,  till  it  seems  as  if  you  could  not  hold  on 
a  minute  longer,"  said  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  "never 
give  up  then,  for  that's  just  the  place  and  time  that  the 
tide  '11  turn." 

Charles  Sumner  said,  "  Three  things  are  necessary : 
first,  backbone ;  second,  backbone  ;  third,  backbone." 

While  digging  among  the  ruins  of  Pompeii,  which 
was  buried  by  the  dust  and  ashes  from  an  eruption  of 
Vesuvius,  A.  D.  79,  the  workmen  found  the  skeleton  of 
a  Koman  soldier  in  the  sentry-box  at  one  of  the  city's 
gates.  He  might  have  found  safety  under  sheltering 
rocks  close  by ;  but,  in  the  face  of  certain  death,  he  had 
remained  at  his  post,  a  mute  witness  to  the  thorough 
discipline,  the  ceaseless  vigilance  and  fidelity  which 
made  the  Eoman  legionaries  masters  of  the  known 
world.  Bulwer,  describing  the  flight  of  a  party  amid 
the  dust,  and  ashes,  and  streams  of  boiling  water,  and 
huge  hurtling  fragments  of  scoria,  and  gusty  winds, 
and  lurid  lightnings,  continues  :  "  The  air  was  now  still 
for  a  few  minutes ;  the  lamp  from  the  gate  streamed 
out  far  and  clear ;  the  fugitives  hurried  on.  They 
gained  the  gate.  They  passed  by  the  Roman  sentry. 
The  lightning  flashed  over  his  livid  face  and  polished 
helmet,  but  his  stern  features  were  composed  even  in 
their  awe  !  He  remained  erect  and  motionless  at  his 
post.  That  hour  itself  had  not  animated  the  machine 
of  the  ruthless  majesty  of  Rome  into  the  reasoning  and 
self-acting  man.  There  he  stood  amidst  the  crashing 
elements ;  he  had  not  received  the  permission  to  desert 
his  station  and  escape." 

The  world  admires  the  man  who  never  flinches  from 
unexpected  difiiculties,  who  calmly,  patiently,  and  cour- 
ageously grapples  with  his  fate ;  who  dies,  if  need  be,  at 
his  post. 

"  Clear  grit "  always  commands  respect.  It  is  that 
quality  which  achieves,  and  everybody  admires  achieve- 


CLEAR  GRIT.  189 

ment.  In  the  strife  of  parties  and  principles,  backbone 
without  brains  will  carry  against  brains  without  back- 
bone. "  A  politician  weakly  and  amiably  in  the  right 
is  no  match  for  a  politician  tenaciously  and  pugna- 
ciously in  the  wrong."  You  cannot,  by  tying  an  opinion 
to  a  man's  tongue,  make  him  the  representative  of  that 
opinion ;  at  the  close  of  any  battle  for  principles,  his 
name  will  be  found  neither  among  the  dead  nor  among 
the  wounded,  but  among  the  missing. 

The  "  London  Times  "  was  an  insignificant  sheet  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Walter  and  was  steadily  losing  money. 
John  Walter,  Jr.,  then  only  twenty-seven  years  old, 
begged  his  father  to  give  him  full  control  of  the  paper. 
After  many  misgivings,  the  father  finally  consented. 
The  young  journalist  began  to  remodel  the  establish- 
ment and  to  introduce  new  ideas  everywhere.  The  pa- 
per had  not  attempted  to  mould  public  opinion,  and  had 
no  individuality  or  character  of  its  own.  The  audacious 
young  editor  boldly  attacked  every  wrong,  even  the 
government,  when  he  thought  it  corrupt.  Thereupon 
the  public  customs,  printing,  and  the  government  ad- 
vertisements were  withdrawn.  The  father  was  in  utter 
dismay.  The  son  he  was  sure  would  ruin  the  paper  and 
himself.  But  no  remonstrance  could  swerve  him  from 
his  purpose,  to  give  the  world  a  great  journal  which 
should  have  weight,  character,  individuality,  and  inde- 
pendence. 

The  public  soon  saw  that  a  new  power  stood  behind 
the  "  Times  "  ;  that  its  articles  meant  business  ;  that  new 
life  and  new  blood  and  new  ideas  had  been  infused  into 
the  insignificant  sheet;  that  a  man  with  brains  and 
push  and  tenacity  of  purpose  stood  at  the  helm,  —  a 
man  who  could  make  a  way  when  he  could  not  find  one. 
Among  other  new  features  foreign  dispatches  were  in- 
troduced, and  they  appeared  in  the  "  Times  "  several  days 
before  their  appearance  in  the  government  organs.  The 
"leading  article  "  also  was  introduced  to  stay.     But  the 


190  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

aggressive  editor  antagonized  tlie  government,  and  his 
foreign  dispatches  were  all  stopped  at  the  ontpost, 
while  those  of  the  ministerial  jonrnalists  were  allowed 
to  proceed.  But  nothing  could  daunt  this  resolute 
young  spirit.  At  enormous  expense  he  employed  spe- 
cial couriers.  Every  obstacle  put  in  his  way,  and  all 
opposition  from  the  government,  only  added  to  his  de- 
termination to  succeed.  Enterprise,  push,  grit  were 
behind  the  "  Times,"  and  nothing  could  stay  its  progress. 
Walter  was  the  soul  of  the  paper,  and  his  personality 
pervaded  every  detail.  In  those  days  only  three  hun- 
dred copies  of  the  "  Times  "  could  be  struck  off  in  an  hour 
by  the  best  presses,  and  Walter  had  duplicate  and  even 
triplicate  types  set.  Then  he  set  his  brain  to  work,  and 
finally  the  Walter  Press,  throwing  off  17,000  copies,  both 
sides  printed,  per  hour,  was  the  result.  It  was  the 
29th  of  ISTovember,  1814,  that  the  first  steam  printed  pa- 
per was  given  to  the  world.  Walter's  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose was  remarkable.  He  shrank  from  no  undertaking, 
and  neglected  no  detail. 

"  Mean  natures  always  feel  a  sort  of  terror  before 
great  natures,  and  many  a  base  thought  has  been  unut- 
tered,  many  a  sneaking  vote  withheld,  through  the  fea.r 
inspired  by  the  rebuking  presence  of  one  noble  man." 
As  a  rule,  pure  grit,  character,  has  the  right  of  way. 
In  the  presence  of  men  permeated  with  grit  and  sound 
in  character,  meanness  and  baseness  slink  out  of  sight. 
Mean  men  are  uncomfortable,  dishonesty  trembles,  hy- 
pocrisy is  uncertain. 

Lincoln,  being  asked  by  an  anxious  visitor  what  he 
would  do  after  three  or  four  years  if  the  rebellion  was 
not  subdued,  replied  :  "  Oh,  there  is  no  alternative  but 
to  keep  pegging  away." 

"  It  is  in  me  and  it  shall  come  out,"  said  Sheridan, 
when  told  that  he  would  never  make  an  orator,  as  he 
had  failed  in  his  first  speech  in  Parliament.  He  became 
known  as  one  of  the  foremost  orators  of  his  day. 


CLEAR  GRIT.  191 

When  a  boy  Henry  Clay  was  very  bashful  and  diffi- 
dent, and  scarcely  dared  recite  before  his  class  at  school, 
but  he  determined  to  become  an  orator.  So  he  com- 
mitted speeches  and  recited  them  in  the  cornfields,  or  in 
the  barn  with  the  horse  and  cows  for  an  audience. 

Look  at  Garrison  reading  this  advertisement  in  a 
Southern  paper  :  "  Five  thousand  dollars  will  be  paid 
for  the  head  of  W.  L.  Garrison  by  the  Governor  of 
Georgia."  Behold  him  again  ;  a  broadcloth  mob  is  lead- 
ing him  through  the  streets  of  Boston  by  a  rope.  He  is 
hurried  to  jail.  See  him  return  calmly  and  unflinch- 
ingly to  his  work,  beginning  at  the  point  at  which  he 
was  interrupted.  Note  this  heading  in  the  "  Liberator," 
the  type  of  which  he  set  himself  in  an  attic  on  State 
Street,  in  Boston  :  "  I  am  in  earnest,  I  will  not  equivo- 
cate, I  will  not  excuse,  I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch, 
and  I  will  be  heard."  Was  Garrison  heard  ?  Ask  a 
race  set  free  largely  by  his  efforts.  Even  the  gallows 
erected  in  front  of  his  own  door  did  not  daunt  him.  He 
held  the  ear  of  an  unwilling  world  with  that  burning 
word  "freedom,"  which  was  destined  never  to  cease  its 
vibrations  until  it  had  breathed  its  sweet  secret  to  the 
last  slave. 

If  impossibilities  ever  exist,  popularly  speaking,  they 
ought  to  have  been  found  somewhere  between  the  birth 
and  the  death  of  Kitto,  that  deaf  pauper  and  master  of 
Oriental  learning.  But  Kitto  did  not  find  them  there. 
In  the  presence  of  his  decision  and  imperial  energy  they 
melted  away.  Kitto  begged  his  father  to  take  him  out 
of  the  poorhouse,  even  if  he  had  to  subsist  like  the 
Hottentots.  He  told  him  that  h^e  would  sell  his  books 
and  pawn  his  handkerchief,  by  which  he  thought  he 
could  raise  about  twelve  shillings.  He  said  he  could 
live  upon  blackberries,  nuts,  and  field  turnips,  and  was 
willing  to  sleep  on  a  hayrick.  Here  was  real  grit. 
What  were  impossibilities  to  such  a  resolute  will  ?  Pat- 
rick Henry  voiced  that  decision  which  characterized  the 


192  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

great  men  of  the  E-evolution  when  he  said,  "  Is  life  so 
dear,  or  peace  so  sweet,  as  to  be  purchased  at  the  price 
of  chains  and  slavery  ?  Forbid*  it,  Almighty  God !  I 
know  not  what  course  others  may  take  ;  but  as  for  me, 
give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death !  " 

Grit  is  a  permanent,  solid  quality,  which  enters  into 
the  very  structure,  the  very  tissues  of  the  constitu- 
tion. A  weak  man,  a  wavering,  irresolute  man,  may 
be  "  spunky "  upon  occasion,  he  may  be  "  plucky  "  in 
an  emergency ;  but  pure  "  grit "  is  a  part  of  the  very 
character  of  strong  men  alone.  Lord  Erskine  was  a 
plucky  man  ;  he  even  had  flashes  of  heroism,  and  when 
he  was  with  weaker  men,  he  was  thought  to  have  nerve 
and  even  grit ;  but  when  he  entered  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, although  a  hero  at  the  bar,  the  imperiousness, 
the  audacious  scorn,  and  the  intellectual  supremacy  of 
Pitt  disturbed  his  equanimity  and  exposed  the  weak 
places  in  his  armor.  In  Pitt's  commanding  presence 
he  lost  his  equilibrium.  His  individuality  seemed  off 
its  centre  ;  he  felt  fluttered,  weak,  and  uneasy. 

Many  of  our  generals  in  the  late  war  exhibited  hero- 
ism. They  were  "  plucky,"  and  often  displayed  great 
determination,  but  Grant  had  pure  "  grit "  in  the  most 
concentrated  form.  He  could  not  be  moved  from  his 
base  ;  he  was  self-centred,  immovable.  "  If  you  try  to 
wheedle  out  of  him  his  plans  for  a  campaign,  he  stolidly 
smokes  ;  if  you  call  him  an  imbecile  and  a  blunderer,  he 
blandly  lights  another  cigar ;  if  you  praise  him  as  the 
greatest  general  living,  he  placidly  returns  the  puff  from 
his  regalia ;  and  if  you  tell  him  he  should  run  for  the 
presidency,  it  does  not  disturb  the  equanimity  with 
which  he  inhales  and  exhales  the  unsubstantial  vapor 
which  typifies  the  politician's  promises.  While  you  are 
wondering  what  kind  of  creature  this  man  without  a 
tongue  is,  you  are  suddenly  electrified  with  the  news  of 
some  splendid  victory,  proving  that  behind  the  cigar, 
and  behind  the  face  discharged  of  all  tell-tale  expression. 


CLEAR  GRIT.  193 

is  the  best  brain  to  plan  and  the  strongest  heart  to  dare 
among  the  generals  of  the  Kepublic." 

Demosthenes  was  a  man  who  could  rise  to  sublime 
heights  of  heroism,  but  his  bravery  was  not  his  normal 
condition  and  depended  upon  his  genius  being  arous^. 

He  had  "pluck''  and  "spunk"  on  occasions,  but 
Lincoln  had  pure  "  grit."  When  the  illustrated  papers 
everywhere  were  caricaturing  him,  when  no  epithet 
seemed  too  harsh  to  heap  upon  him,  when  his  methods 
were  criticised  by  his  own  party,  and  the  generals  in  the 
war  were  denouncing  his  "  foolish  "  confidence  in  Grant, 
and  delegations  were  waiting  upon  him  to  ask  for  that 
general's  removal,  the  great  President  sat  with  crossed 
legs,  and  was  reminded  of  a  story. 

Lincoln  and  Grant  both  had  that  rare  nerve  which 
cares  not  for  ridicule,  is  not  swerved  by  public  clamor, 
can  bear  abuse  and  hatred.  There  is  a  mighty  force  in 
truth  and  in  the  sublime  conviction  and  supreme  self-con- 
fidence behind  it,  in  the  knowledge  that  truth  is  mighty 
and  the  conviction  and  confidence  that  it  will  prevail. 

Pure  grit  is  that  element  of  character  which  enables  a 
man  to  clutch  his  aim  with  an  iron  grip,  and  keep  the 
needle  of  his  purpose  pointing  to  the  star  of  his  hope. 
Through  sunshine  and  storm,  through  hurricane  and 
tempest,  through  sleet  and  rain,  with  a  leaky  ship,  with 
a  crew  in  mutiny,  it  perseveres ;  in  fact,  nothing  but 
death  can  subdue  it,  and  it  dies  still  struggling. 

The  man  of  grit  carries  in  his  very  presence  a  power 
which  controls  and  commands.  He  is  spared  the  neces- 
sity of  declaring  himself,  for  his  grit  speaks  in  his  every 
act.  It  does  not  come  by  fits  and  starts,  it  is  a  part  of 
his  very  life.  It  inspires  a  sublime  audacity  and  a  he- 
roic courage.  Many  of  the  failures  of  life  are  due  to  the 
want  of  grit  or  business  nerve.  It  is  unfortunate  for  a 
young  man  to  start  out  in  business  life  with  a  weak, 
yielding  disposition,  with  no  resolution  or  backbone  to 
mark  his  own  course  and  stick  to  it ;  with  no  ability  to 


194  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

say  "  No "  with  an  emphasis,  obliging  this  man  by  in- 
vesting in  hopeless  speculation,  and  rather  than  offend 
a  friend,  indorsing  a  questionable  note. 

A  little  boy  was  asked  how  he  learned  to  skate.  "  Oh, 
by  getting  up  every  time  I  fell  down,"  he  replied. 

Whipple  tells  a  story  of  Massena  which  illustrates 
the  masterful  purpose  that  plucks  victory  out  of  the 
jaws  of  defeat.  "  After  the  defeat  at  Essling,  the  suc- 
cess of  Napoleon's  attempt  to  withdraw  his  beaten  army 
depended  on  the  character  of  Massena,  to  whom  the 
Emperor  dispatched  a  messenger,  telling  him  to  keep 
his  position  for  two  hours  longer  at  Aspern.  This 
order,  couched  in  the  form  of  a  request,  required  almost 
an  impossibility  ;  but  Napoleon  knew  the  indomitable 
tenacity  of  the  man  to  whom  he  gave  it.  The  messen- 
ger found  Massena  seated  on  a  heap  of  rubbish,  his  eyes 
bloodshot,  his  frame  weakened  by  his  unparalleled  exer- 
tions during  a  contest  of  forty  hours,  and  his  whole  ap- 
pearance indicating  a  physical  state  better  befitting  the 
hospital  than  the  field.  But  that  steadfast  soul  seemed 
altogether  unaffected  by  bodily  prostration ;  half  dead 
as  he  was  with  fatigue,  he  rose  painfully  and  said,  '  Tell 
the  Emperor  that  I  will  hold  out  for  two  hours.'  And 
he  kept  his  word." 

"  Often  defeated  in  battle,"  said  Macaulay  of  Alexan- 
der the  Great,  "he  was  always  successful  in  war."  He 
might  have  said  the  same  of  Washington,  and,  with  ap- 
propriate changes,  of  all  who  win  great  triumphs  of  any 
kind. 

In  the  battle  of  Marengo,  the  Austrians  considered 
the  day  won.  The  French  army  was  inferior  in  num- 
bers, and  had  given  way.  The  Austrian  army  extended 
its  wings  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  to  follow  up  the 
Erench.  Then,  though  the  Erench  themselves  thought 
the  battle  lost,  and  the  Austrians  were  confident  it  was 
won,  Napoleon  gave  the  command  to  charge  ;  and,  the 
trumpet's    blast   being   given,  the    Old   Guard  charged 


CLEAR  GRIT.  195 

down  into  the  weakened  centre  of  the  enemy,  cut  it  in 
two,  rolled  the  two  wings  up  on  either  side,  and  the 
battle  was  won  for  France. 

"  ^ever  despair,"  says  Burke,  ''  but  if  you  do,  work 
on  in  despair." 

Once  when  Marshal  ISTey  was  going  into  battle,  look- 
ing down  at  his  knees  which  were  smiting  together,  he 
said,  "  You  may  well  shake ;  you  would  shake  worse 
yet  if  you  knew  where  I  am  going  to  take  you." 

It  is  victory  after  victory  with  the  soldier,  lesson  after 
lesson  with  the  scholar,  blow  after  blow  with  the  laborer, 
crop  after  crop  with  the  farmer,  picture  after  picture 
with  the  painter,  and  mile  after  mile  with  the  traveler, 
that  secures  what  all  so  much  desire  —  Success. 

A  promising  Harvard  student  was  stricken  with  paral- 
ysis of  both  legs.  Physicians  said  there  was  no  hope 
for  him.  The  lad  determined  to  continue  his  college 
studies.  The  examiners  heard  him  at  his  bedside,  and 
in  four  years  he  took  his  degree.  He  resolved  to  make 
a  critical  study  of  Dante,  to  do  which  he  had  to  learn 
Italian  and  German.  He  persevered  in  spite  of  repeated 
attacks  of  illness  and  partial  loss  of  sight:  He  was 
competing  for  the  university  prize.  Think  of  the  para- 
lytic lad,  helpless  in  bed,  competing  for  a  prize,  fighting 
death  inch  by  inch.  What  a  lesson  !  Before  his  book 
was  published  or  the  prize  awarded,  the  brave  student 
died,  but  the  book  was  successful.  He  meant  that  his 
life  should  not  be  a  burden  or  a  failure,  and  he  was  not 
only  graduated  from  the  best  college  in  America,  but 
competed  successfully  for  the  university  prize,  and  made 
a  valuable  contribution  to  literature. 

Professor  L.  T.  Townsend,  the  famous  author  of 
"  Credo,"  is  another  triumph  of  grit  over  environment. 
He  had  a  hard  struggle  as  a  boy,  but  succeeded  in 
working  his  way  through  Amherst  College,  living  on 
forty -five  cents  a  week. 

Orange  Judd  was  a  remarkable  example  of  success 


196  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

through  grit.  He  earned  corn  by  working  for  farmers, 
carried  it  on  his  back  to  mill,  brought  back  the  meal  to 
his  room,  cooked  it  himself,  milked  cows  for  his  pint  of 
milk  per  da}^,  and  lived  on  mush  and  milk  for  months 
together.  He  worked  his  way  through  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity, and  took  a  three  years'  post-graduate  course  at 
Yale. 

Congressman  William  W.  Crapo,  while  working  his 
way  through  college,  being  too  poor  to  buy  a  dictionary, 
actually  copied  one,  walking  from  his  home  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Dartmouth,  Mass.,  to  New  Bedford  to  replenish 
his  store  of  words  and  definitions  from  the  town  library. 

Oh,  the  triumphs  of  this  indomitable  spirit  of  the 
conqueror !  This  it  was  that  enabled  Franklin  to  dine  on 
a  small  loaf  in  the  printing-office  with  a  book  in  his 
hand.  It  helped  Locke  to  live  on  bread  and  water  in  a 
Dutch  garret.  It  enabled  Gideon  Lee  to  go  barefoot  in 
the  snow,  half  starved  and  thinly  clad.  It  sustained 
Lincoln  and  Garfield  on  their  hard  journeys  from  the 
log  cabin  to  the  AVhite  House. 

President  Chadbourne  put  grit  in  place  of  his  lost 
lung,  and  worked  thirty-five  years  after  his  funeral  had 
been  planned. 

Lord  Cavanagh  put  grit  in  the  place  of  arms  and  legs, 
and  went  to  Parliament  in  spite  of  his  deformity. 

Henry  Fawcett  put  grit  in  place  of  eyesight,  and  be- 
came the  greatest  Postmaster-General  England  ever  had. 

Prescott  also  put  grit  in  place  of  eyesight,  and  became 
one  of  America's  greatest  historians.  Francis  Parkman 
put  grit  in  place  of  health  ai^d  eyesight,  and  became  the 
greatest  historian  of  America  in  his  line.  Thousands 
of  men  have  put  grit  in  place  of  health,  eyes,  ears, 
hands,  legs,  and  yet  have  achieved  marvelous  success. 
Indeed,  most  of  the  great  things  of  the  world  have  been 
accomplished  by  grit  and  pluck.  You  cannot  keep  a 
man  down  who  has  these  qualities.  He  will  make  step- 
ping-stones out  of  his  stumbling-blocks,  and  lift  him- 
self to  success. 


CLEAR  GRIT.  197 

At  fifty,  Barnum  was  a  ruined  man,  owing  tliousands 
more  than  he  possessed,  yet  he  resolutely  resumed  busi- 
ness once  more,  fairly  wringing  success  from  adverse 
fortune,  and  paying  his  notes  at  the  same  time.  Again 
and  again  he  was  ruined ;  but  phoenix-like,  he  rose  re- 
peatedly from  the  ashes  of  his  misfortune  each  time 
more  determined  than  before. 

It  was  the  last  three  days  of  the  first  voyage  of  Colum- 
bus that  told.  All  his  years  of  struggle  and  study  would 
have  availed  nothing  if  he  had  yielded  to  the  mutiny. 
It  was  all  in  those  three  days.     But  what  days  ! 

"  It  is  all  very  well,"  said  Charles  J.  Fox,  "  to  tell  me 
that  a  young  man  has  distinguished  himself  by  a  bril- 
liant first  speech.  He  may  go  on,  or  he  may  be  satisfied 
with  his  first  triumph ;  but  show  me  a  young  man  who 
has  not  succeeded  at  first,  and  nevertheless  has  gone  on, 
and  I  will  back  that  young  man  to  do  better  than  most 
of  those  who  have  succeeded  at  the  first  trial." 

Cobden  broke  down  completely  the  first  time  he  ap- 
peared on  a  platform  in  Manchester,  and  the  chairman 
apologized  for  him.  But  he  did  not  give  up  speaking 
till  every  poor  man  in  England  had  a  larger,  better,  and 
cheaper  loaf. 

See  young  Disraeli,  sprung  from  a  hated  and  perse- 
cuted race  ;  without  opportunity,  pushing  his  way  up 
through  the  middle  classes,  up  through  the  upper  classes, 
until  he  stands  self-poised  upon  the  topmost  round  of 
political  and  social  power.  Scoffed,  ridiculed,  rebuffed, 
hissed  from  the  House  of  Commons,  he  simply  says, 
"The  time  will  come  when  you.  will  hear  me."  The 
time  did  come,  and  the  boy  with  no  chance  swayed  the 
sceptre  of  England  for  a  quarter  of  a  century. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  examples  in  history  is 
Disraeli,  forcing  his  leadership  upon  that  very  party 
whose  prejudices  were  deepest  against  his  race,  and 
which  had  an  utter  contempt  for  self-made  men  and  in- 
terlopers.    Imagine  England's  surprise  when  she  awoke 


198  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

to  find  this  insignificant  Hebrew  actually  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer.  He  was  easily  master  of  all  the  tortures 
supplied  by  the  armory  of  rhetoric ;  he  could  exhaust 
the  resources  of  the  bitterest  invective  ;  he  could  sting 
Gladstone  out  of  his  self-control ;  he  was  absolute  mas- 
ter of  himself  and  his  situation.  You  can  see  that  this 
young  man  intends  to  make  his  way  in  the  world.  A 
determined  audacity  is  in  his  very  face.  He  is  a  gay 
fop.  Handsome,  with  the  hated  Hebrew  blood  in  his 
veins,  after  three  defeats  in  parliamentary  elections  he 
was  not  the  least  daunted,  for  he  knew  his  day  would 
come,  as  it  did.  Lord  Melbourne,  the  great  Prime  Min- 
ister, when  this  gay  young  fop  was  introduced  to  him, 
asked  him  what  he  wished  to  be.  "Prime  Minister  of 
England,"  was  his  audacious  reply. 

One  of  the  greatest  preachers  of  modern  times,  Lacor- 
daire,  failed  again  and  again.  Everybody  said  he  would 
never  make  a  preacher,  but  he  was  determined  to  suc- 
ceed, and  in  two  years  from  his  humiliating  failures 
he  was  preaching  in  Notre  Dame  to  immense  congrega- 
tions. 

The  boy  Thorwaldsen,  whose  father  died  in  the  poor- 
house,  and  whose  education  was  so  scanty  that  he  had  to 
write  his  letters  over  many  times  before  they  could  be 
posted,  by  his  indomitable  perseverance,  tenacity,  and 
grit,  fascinated  the  world  with  the  genius  which  neither 
his  discouraging  father,  poverty,  nor  hardship  could 
suppress. 

William  H.  Seward  was  given  a  thousand  dollars  by 
his  father  to  go  to  college  with  ;  this  was  all  he  was  to 
have.  The  son  returned  at  the  end  of  the  freshman 
year  with  extravagant  habits  and  no  money.  His  fa- 
ther refused  to  give  him  more,  and  told  him  he  could 
not  stay  at  home.  When  the  youth  found  the  props  all 
taken  out  from  under  him,  and  that  he  must  now  sink 
or  swim,  he  left  home  moneyless,  returned  to  college, 
graduated  at  the  head  of   his   class,  studied  law,  was 


CLEAR   GRIT.  199 

elected  Governor  of  New  York,  and  became  Lincoln's 
great  Secretary  of  State  during  the  Civil  War. 

Louisa  M.  Alcott  wrote  the  conclusion  to  "  An  Old- 
Fashioned  Girl "  with  her  left  hand  in  a  sling,  one  foot 
up,  head  aching,  and  no  voice.  She  proudly  writes  in 
her  diary,  "  Twenty  years  ago  I  resolved  to  make  the 
family  independent  if  I  could.  At  forty,  that  is  done. 
Debts  all  paid,  even  the  outlawed  ones,  and  we  have 
enough  to  be  comfortable.  It  has  cost  me  my  health, 
perhaps."  She  earned  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
by  her  pen. 

Mrs.  Frank  Leslie  often  refers  to  the  time  she  lived 
in  her  carpetless  attic  while  striving  to  pay  her  hus- 
band's obligations.  She  has  fought  her  way  success- 
fully through  nine  lawsuits,  and  has  paid  the  entire 
debt.  She  manages  her  ten  publications  entirely  her- 
self, signs  all  checks  and  money-orders,  makes  all  con- 
tracts, looks  over  all  proofs,  and  approves  the  make-up  of 
everything  before  it  goes  to  press.  She  has  developed 
great  business  ability,  which  no  one  dreamed  she  pos- 
sessed. 

Garfield  said,  "  If  the  power  to  do  hard  work  is  not 
talent,  it  is  the  best  possible  substitute  for  it."  The 
triumph  of  industry  and  grit  over  low  birth  and  iron 
fortune  in  America,  this  land  of  opportunity,  ought  to 
be  sufficient  to  put  to  shame  all  grumblers  over  their 
hard  fortune  and  those  who  attempt  to  excuse  aimless, 
shiftless,  successless  men  because  they  have  no  chance. 

The  fear  of  ridicule  and  the  dread  of  humiliation 
often  hinder  one  from  taking  decisive  steps  when  it  is 
plainly  a  duty,  so  that  courage  is  a  very  important  ele- 
ment of  decision.  In  a  New  England  academy  a  pupil 
who  was  engaged  to  assist  the  teacher  was  unable  to 
solve  a  problem  in  algebra.  The  class  was  approaching 
the  problem,  and  he  was  mortified  because,  after  many 
trials,  he  was  obliged  to  take  it  to  the  teacher  for  solu- 
tion.    The  teacher  returned  it  unsolved.     What  could 


200  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

lie  do  ?  He  would  not  confess  to  the  class  that  he  could 
not  solve  it,  so,  after  many  futile  attempts,  he  went  to  a 
distant  town  to  seek  the  assistance  of  a  friend  who,  he 
believed,  could  do  the  work.  But,  alas  !  his  friend  had 
gone  away,  and  would  not  be  back  for  a  week.  On  his 
way  back  he  said  to  himself,  "  What  a  fool !  am  I  un- 
able to  perform  a  problem  in  algebra,  and  shall  I  go 
back  to  my  class  and  confess  my  ignorance  ?  I  can 
solve  it  and  I  will."  He  shut  himself  in  his  room, 
determined  not  to  sleep  until  he  had  mastered  the 
problem,  and  finally  he  won  success.  Underneath  the 
solution  he  wrote,  "  Obtained  Monday  evening,  Septem- 
ber 2,  at  half  past  eleven  o'clock,  after  more  than  a 
dozen  trials  that  have  consumed  more  than  twenty 
hours  of  time." 

During  a  winter  in  the  war  of  1812,  General  Jackson's 
troops,  unprovided  for  and  starving,  became  mutinous 
and  were  going  home.  But  the  general  set  the  example 
of  living  on  acorns  ;  then  rode  before  the  rebellious  line 
and  threatened  with  death  the  first  mutineer  that  should 
try  to  leave. 

The  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift,  the  battle  is  not 
always  to  the  strong.  Horses  are  sometimes  weighted 
or  hampered  in  the  race,  and  this  is  taken  into  account 
in  the  result.  So  in  the  race  of  life  the  distance  alone 
does  not  determine  the  prize.  We  must  take  into  con- 
sideration the  hindrances,  the  weights  we  have  carried, 
the  disadvantages  of  education,  of  breeding,  of  training, 
of  surroundings,  of  circumstances.  How  many  young 
men  are  weighted  down  with  debt,  with  poverty,  with 
the  support  of  invalid  parents  or  brothers  and  sisters,  or 
friends  ?  How  many  are  fettered  with  ignorance,  ham- 
pered by  inhospitable  surroundings,  with  the  opposition 
of  parents  who  do  not  understand  them  ?  How  many 
a  round  boy  is  hindered  in  the  race  by  being  forced  into 
a  square  hole  ?  How  many  are  delayed  in  their  course 
because  nobody  believes  in  them,  because  nobody  en- 


CLEAR  GRIT.  201 

courages  them,  because  they  get  no  sympathy  and  are 
forever  tortured  for  not  doing  that  against  which  every 
fibre  of  their  being  protests,  and  every  drop  of  their 
blood  rebels  ?  How  many  have  to  feel  their  way  to 
the  goal,  through  the  blindness  of  ignorance  and  lack 
of  experience  ?  How  many  go  bungling  along  from 
the  lack  of  early  discipline  and  drill  in  the  vocation 
they  have  chosen?  How  many  have  to  hobble  along 
on  crutches  because  they  were  never  taught  to  help 
themselves,  but  to  lean  upon  a  father's  wealth  or  a 
mother's  indulgence  ?  How  many  are  weakened  for 
the  journey  of  life  by  self-indulgence,  by  dissipation,  by 
"  life-sappers ;  "  how  many  are  crippled  by  disease,  by 
a  weak  constitution,  by  impaired  eyesight  or  hearing  ? 

When  the  prizes  of  life  shall  be  awarded  by  the  Su- 
preme Judge,  who  knows  our  weaknesses  and  frailties, 
the  distance  we  have  run,  the  weights  we  have  carried, 
the  handicaps,  will  all  be  taken  into  account.  Not  the 
distance  we  have  run,  but  the  obstacles  we  have  over- 
come, the  disadvantages  under  which  we  have  made  the 
race,  will  decide  the  prizes.  The  poor  wretch  who  has 
plodded  along  against  unknown  temptations,  the  poor 
woman  who  has  buried  her  sorrows  in  her  silent  heart 
and  sewed  her  weary  way  through  life,  those  who  have 
suffered  abuse  in  silence,  and  who  have  been  unrecog- 
nized or  despised  by  their  fellow-runners,  will  often 
receive  the  greater  prize. 

"  The  wise  and  active  conquer  difficulties, 
By  daring  to  attempt  them  :  sloth  and  folly 
Shiver  and  sink  at  sight  of  toil  and  hazard, 
And  make  the  impossibility  they  fear." 

Tumble  me  down,  and  I  will  sit 

Upon  my  ruins,  smiling  yet : 

Tear  me  to  tatters,  yet  I  '11  be 

Patient  in  my  necessity  : 

Laugh  at  my  scraps  of  clothes,  and  shun 

Me  as  a  fear'd  infection  : 

Yet  scare-crow  like  I  '11  walk,  as  one 

Neglecting  thy  derision. 

Robert  Herrick. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    GRANDEST     THING    IN     THE     WORLD. 

"  One  ruddy  drop  of  manly  blood  the  surging  sea  outweighs." 

"Manhood  overtops  all  titles." 

The  truest  test  of  civilization  is  not  the  census,  nor  the  size  of  cities,  nor 
the  crops;  no,  but  the  kind  of  man  the  country  turns  out.  —  Emersox. 

Hew  the  block  off,  and  get  out  the  man.  —  Pope. 

Eternity  alone  will  reveal  to  the  human  race  its  debt  of  gratitude  to  the 
peerless  and  immortal  name  of  Washington.  —James  A.  Garfield. 

Tennyson. 


Better  not  be  at  all 
Than  not  be  noble. 


Be  noble !  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping,  but  never  dead, 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own. 


Lowell. 


Virtue  alone  out-builds  the  pyramids  : 

Her  monuments  shall  last  when  Egypt's  fall. 

Young. 
Were  one  so  tall  to  touch  the  pole, 

Or  grasp  creation  in  his  span. 
He  must  be  measured  by  his  soul, 
The  mind  's  the  measure  of  the  man. 

Watts. 
We  live  in  deeds,  not  years;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths; 

In  feelings,  not  in  figures  on  a  dial. 
We  should  count  time  by  heart-throbs.     He  most  lives 
Who  thinks  most,  feels  the  noblest,  acts  the  best. 

Bailey. 
"  Good  name  in  man  or  woman 
Is  the  immediate  jewel  of  their  souls." 
But  this  one  thing  I  know,  that  these  qualities  did  not  now  begin  to 
exist,  cannot  be  sick  with  my  sickness,  nor  buried  in  my  grave.  —  Emerson. 

A  Moor  was  walking  in  his  garden  when  a  Spanish 
cavalier  suddenly  fell  at  his  feet,  pleading  for  conceal- 


JOHN    GREENLEAF   WHITTIER 
"  Be  noble  :  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping,  but  never  dead. 
Will  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own. 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    203 

ment  from  pursuers  wlio  sought  liis  life  in  revenge  for 
the  killing  of  a  Moorish  gentleman.  The  Moor  prom- 
ised aid,  and  locked  his  visitor  in  a  summer-house  until 
night  should  afford  opportunity  for  his  escape.  Not 
long  after  the  dead  body  of  his  son  was  brought  home, 
and  from  the  description  given  he  knew  the  Spaniard 
was  the  murderer.  He  concealed  his  horror,  however, 
and  at  midnight  unlocked  the  summer-house,  saying, 
"  Christian,  the  youth  whom  you  have  murdered  was 
my  only  son.  Your  crime  deserves  the  severest  punish- 
ment. But  I  have  solemnly  pledged  my  word  not  to 
betray  you,  and  I  disdain  to  violate  a  rash  engagement 
even  with  a  cruel  enemy."  Then,  saddling  one  of  his 
fleetest  mules,  he  said,  "  Flee  while  the  darkness  of 
night  conceals  you.  Your  hands  are  polluted  with 
blood ;  but  God  is  just ;  and  I  humbly  thank  Him  that 
my  faith  is  unspotted,  and  that  I  have  resigned  judg- 
ment to  Him." 

Character  never  dies.     As  Longfellow  says  :  — 

"  Were  a  star  quenched  on  high, 
For  ages  would  its  light, 
Still  traveling  downward  from  the  sky, 
Shine  on  our  mortal  sight. 

"  So  when  a  great  man  dies, 
For  years  beyond  our  ken, 
The  light  he  leaves  behind  him  lies 
Upon  the  paths  of  men." 

The  character  of  Socrates  was  mightier  than  the  hem- 
lock, and  banished  the  fear  and  sting  of  death. 

Who  can  estimate  the  power  of  a  well-lived  life  ? 
Character  is  power.  Hang  this  motto  in  every  school 
in  the  land,  in  every  home,  in  every  youth's  room. 
Mothers,  engrave  it  on  every  child's  heart. 

You  cannot  destroy  one  single  atom  of  a  Garrison, 
even  though  he  were  hanged.  The  mighty  force  of  mar- 
tyrs to  truth  lives  ;  the  candle  burns  more  brilliantly 
than  before  it  was  snuffed.     '^  No  varnish  or  veneer  of 


204  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

scholarship,  no  command  of  the  tricks  of  logic  or  rhet- 
oric, can  ever  make  you  a  positive  force  in  the  world ; " 
but  your  character  can. 

When  the  statue  of  George  Peabody,  erected  in  one 
of  the  thoroughfares  of  London,  was  unveiled,  the 
sculptor  Story  was  asked  to  speak.  Twice  he  touched 
the  statue  with  his  hand,  and  said,  "  That  is  my  speech. 
That  is  my  speech."  What  could  be  more  eloquent  ? 
Character  needs  no  recommendation.  It  pleads  its  own 
cause. 

"  Show  me,"  said  Omar  the  Caliph  to  Amru  the  war- 
rior, "  the  sword  with  which  you  have  fought  so  many 
battles  and  slain  so  many  infidels."  "Ah!"  replied 
Amru,  "  the  sword  without  the  arm  o-f  the  master  is  no 
sharper  nor  heavier  than  the  sword  of  Farezdak  the 
poet."  So  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  of  flesh  and 
blood  without  character  is  of  no  great  value. 

Napoleon  was  so  much  impressed  with  the  courage 
and  resources  of  Marshal  Ney,  that  he  said,  "  I  have 
two  hundred  millions  in  my  coffers,  and  I  would  give 
them  all  for  Ney." 

In  Agra,  India,  stands  the  Taj  Mahal,  the  acme  of 
Oriental  architecture,  said  to  be  the  most  beautiful 
building  in  the  world.  It  was  i^lanned  as  a  mausoleum 
for  the  favorite  wife  of  Shah  Jehan.  When  the  latter 
was  deposed  by  his  son  Aurungzebe,  his  daughter  Ja- 
hanara  chose  to  share  his  captivity  and  poverty  rather 
than  the  guilty  glory  of  her  brother.  On  her  tomb  in 
Delhi  were  cut  her  dying  words  :  "  Let  no  rich  coverlet 
adorn  my  grave  ;  this  grass  is  the  best  covering  for  the 
tomb  of  the  poor  in  spirit,  the  humble,  the  transitory 
Jahanara,  the  disciple  of  the  holy  men  of  Christ,  the 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Shah  Jehan."  Travelers  who 
visit  the  magnificent  Taj  linger  long  by  the  grass-green 
sarcophagus  in  Delhi,  but  give  only  passing  notice  to 
the  beautiful  Jamma  Mas j  id,  a  mausoleum  afterwards 
erected  in  her  honor. 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    205 

Some  writer  has  well  said  that  David  of  the  throne 
we  cannot  always  recall  with  pleasure,  but  David  of  the 
Psalms  we  never  forget.  The  strong,  sweet  faith  of  the 
latter  streams  like  sunlight  through  even  the  closed 
windows  of  the  soul,  long  after  the  wearied  eye  has 
turned  with  disgust  from  all  the  gilded  pomp  and  pride 
of  the  former. 

Robertson  says  that  when  you  have  got  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  your  heart,  you  will  find  there  not  the  mere 
desire  of  happiness,  but  a  craving  as  natural  to  us  as 
the  desire  for  food,  —  the  craving  for  nobler,  higher 
life. 

"  Private  Benjamin  Owen,  Eegiment,  Vermont 

Volunteers,  was  found  asleep  at  his  post  while  on 
picket  duty  last  night.  The  court-martial  has  sen- 
tenced him  to  be  shot  in  twenty-four  hours,  as  the 
offense  occurred  at  a  critical  time."  "  I  thought  when 
I  gave  Bennie  to  his  country,"  said  farmer  Owen  as  he 
read  the  above  telegram  with  dimming  eyes,  "  that  no 
other  father  in  all  this  broad  land  made  so  precious  a 
gift.  He  only  slept  a  minute,  — just  one  little  minute, 
—  at  his  post ;  I  know  that  was  all,  for  Bennie  never 
dozed  over  a  duty.  How  prompt  and  trustworthy  he 
was  !  He  was  as  tall  as  I,  and  only  eighteen  !  and  now 
they  shoot  him  because  he  was  found  asleep  when  doing 
sentinel  duty  ! "  Just  then  Bennie's  little  sister  Blos- 
som answered  a  tap  at  the  door,  and  returned  with  a 
letter.     "  It  is  from  him,"  was  all  she  said. 

Dear  Father,  —  For  sleeping  on  sentinel  duty  I  am  to 
be  shot.  At  first,  it  seemed  awful  tb  me ;  but  I  have  thought 
about  it  so  much  now  that  it  has  no  terror.  They  say  that  they 
will  not  bind  me,  nor  blind  me  ;  but  that  I  may  meet  my  death 
like  a  man.  I  thought,  father,  that  it  might  have  been  on  the 
battlefield,  for  my  country,  and  that,  when  I  fell,  it  would  be 
fighting  gloriously  ;  but  to  be  shot  down  like  a  dog  for  nearly 
betraying  it,  —  to  die  for  neglect  of  duty !  Oh,  father,  I  won- 
der the  very  thought  does  not  kill  me  !     But  I  shall  not  dis- 


206  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

grace  you.  I  am  going  to  write  you  all  about  it ;  and  when  I 
am  gone,  you  may  tell  my  comrades ;  I  cannot  now. 

You  know  I  promised  Jemmie  Carr's  mother  I  would  look 
after  her  boy ;  and,  when  he  fell  sick,  I  did  all  I  could  for  him. 
He  was  not  strong  when  he  was  ordered  back  into  the  ranks, 
and  the  day  before  that  night  I  carried  all  his  baggage,  be- 
sides my  own,  on  our  march.  Toward  night  we  went  in  on 
double-quick,  and  the  baggage  began  to  feel  very  heavy. 
Everybody  was  tired ;  and  as  for  Jemmie,  if  I  had  not  lent 
him  an  arm  now  and  then,  he  would  have  dropped  by  the  way. 
I  was  all  tired  out  when  we  came  into  camp ;  and  then  it  was 
Jemmie's  turn  to  be  sentry,  and  I  could  take  his  place ;  but  I 
was  too  tired,  father.  I  could  not  have  kept  awake  if  a  gun 
had  been  pointed  at  my  head ;  but  I  did  not  know  it  until,  — 
well,  until  it  was  too  late. 

They  tell  me  to-day  that  I  have  a  short  reprieve,  —  given 
to  me  by  circumstances,  —  "  time  to  write  to  you,"  our  good 
colonel  says.  Forgive  him,  father,  he  only  does  his  duty ;  he 
would  gladly  save  me  if  he  could  ;  and  do  not  lay  my  death 
up  against  Jemmie.  The  poor  boy  is  broken-hearted,  and  does 
nothing  but  beg  and  entreat  them  to  let  him  die  in  my  stead. 
I  can't  bear  to  think  of  mother  and  Blossom.  Comfort  them, 
father  !  Tell  them  I  die  as  a  brave  boy  should,  and  that,  M^hen 
the  war  is  over,  they  will  not  be  ashamed  of  me,  as  they  must 
be  now.  God  help  me  :  it  is  very  hard  to  bear !  Good-by, 
father.  To-night,  in  the  early  twilight,  I  shall  see  the  cows 
all  coming  home  from  pasture,  and  precious  little  Blossom 
standing  on  the  back  stoop,  waiting  for  me,  —  but  I  shall 
never,  never  come  !     God  bless  you  all ! 

"  God  be  thanked  !  "  said  Mr.  Owen  reverently ;  "  I 
knew  Bennie  was  not  the  boy  to  sleep  carelessly." 

Late  that  night  a  little  figure  glided  out  of  the  house 
and  down  the  path.  Two  hours  later  the  conductor  of 
the  southward  mail  lifted  her  into  a  car  at  Mill  Depot. 
Next  morning  she  was  in  New  York,  and  the  next  she 
was  admitted  to  the  White  House  at  Washington. 
"  Well,  my  child,"  said  the  President  in  pleasant,  cheer- 
ful tones,  "  what  do  you  want  so  bright  and  early  this 
morning  ?  "     "  Bennie's  life,  please,  sir,"  faltered  Bios- 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    207 

som.  "Bennie  ?  Who  is  Bennie  ?"  asked  Mr.  Lincoln. 
"  My  brother,  sir.  They  are  going  to  shoot  him  for  sleejD- 
ing  at  his  post,"  said  the  little  girl.  "  I  remember," 
said  the  President ;  '-it  was  a  fatal  sleep.  You  see, 
child,  it  was  a  time  of  special  danger.  Thousands  of 
lives  might  have  been  lost  through  his  culpable  negli- 
gence." "  So  my  father  said  ;  but  poor  Bennie  was  so 
tired,  sir,  and  Jemniie  so  weak.  He  did  the  work  of 
two,  sir,  and  it  was  Jemmie's  night,  not  his  ;  but  Jem- 
mie  was  too  tired,  and  Bennie  never  thought  about 
himself,  —  that  he  was  tired,  too."  "  What  is  that 
you  say,  child  ?  Come  here  ;  I  do  not  understand." 
He  read  Bennie's  letter  to  his  father,  which  Blossom 
held  out,  wrote  a  few  lines,  rang  his  bell,  and  said  to 
the  messenger  who  appeared,  "  Send  this  dispatch  at 
once."  Then,  turning  to  Blossom,  he  continued  :  "  Go 
home,  my  child,  and  tell  that  father  of  yours,  who  could 
approve  his  country's  sentence,  even  when  it  took  the 
life  of  a  child  like  that,  that  Abraham  Lincoln  thinks 
the  life  far  too  precious  to  be  lost.  Go  back,  or  —  wait 
until  to-morrow ;  Bennie  will  need  a  change  after  he  has 
so  bravely  faced  death  ;  he  shall  go  with  you."  "  God 
bless  you,  sir,"  said  Blossom.  Not  all  the  queens  are 
crowned. 

Two  days  later,  when  the  young  soldier  came  with  his 
sister  to  thank  the  President,  Mr.  Lincoln  fastened  the 
strap  of  a  lieutenant  upon  his  shoulder,  saying,  '^  The 
soldier  that  could  carry  a  sick  comrade's  baggage,  and 
die  for  the  act  without  complaining,  deserves  well  of  his 
country." 

When  telegrams  poured  in  announcing  terrible  car- 
nage upon  battlefields  in  our  late  war,  and  when  Presi- 
dent Lincoln's  heart-strings  were  nearly  broken  over  the 
cruel  treatment  of  our  prisoners  at  JLudersonville,  Belle 
Isle,  and  Libby  Prison,  he  never  once  departed  from  his 
famous  motto,  "  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity 
for  all."     When  it  was  reported  that  among  those  re- 


208  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

turned  at  Baltimore  from  Southern  prisons,  not  one  in 
ten  could  stand  alone  from  hunger  and  neglect,  and 
many  were  so  eaten  and  covered  by  vermin  as  to  resem- 
ble those  pitted  by  smallpox,  and  so  emaciated  that  they 
were  living  skeletons,  not  even  these  reports  could  move 
the  great  President  to  retaliate  in  kind  upon  the  South- 
ern prisoners. 

Among  the  slain  on  the  battlefield  at  Fredericksburg 
was  the  body  of  a  youth  upon  which  was  found  next  the 
heart  a  photograph  of  Lincoln.  Upon  the  back  of  it  were 
these  words :  "  God  bless  President  Lincoln."  The 
youth  had  been  sentenced  to  death  for  sleeping  at  his 
post,  but  had  been  pardoned  by  the  President. 

David  Dudley  Field  said  he  considered  Lincoln  the 
greatest  man  of  his  day.  Webster,  Clay,  Calhoun,  and 
others  were  great,  each  in  one  way,  but  Lincoln  was 
great  in  many  ways.  There  seemed  to  be  hidden  springs 
of  greatness  in  this  man  that  would  gush  forth  in  the 
most  unexpected  way.  The  men  about  him  were  at  a 
loss  to  name  the  order  of  his  genius.  Horace  Greeley 
was  almost  as  many-sided,  but  was  a  wonderful  combi- 
nation of  goodness  and  Aveakness,  while  Lincoln  seemed 
strong  in  every  way.  After  Lincoln  had  signed  the 
Emancii)ation  Proclamation  he  said,  "  The  promise 
must  now  be  kept ;  I  shall  never  recall  one  word." 

Bishop  Hamilton,  of  Salisbury,  bears  the  following 
testimony  to  the  influence  for  good  which  Gladstone, 
when  a  school-fellow  at  Eton,  exercised  upon  him.  "  I 
was  a  thoroughly  idle  boy ;  but  I  was  saved  from  worse 
things  by  getting  to  know  Gladstone."  At  Oxford  we 
are  told  the  effect  of  his  example  was  so  strong  that  men 
who  followed  him  there  ten  years  later  declare  "  that 
undergraduates  drank  less  in  the  forties  because  Glad- 
stone had  been  so  courageously  abstemious  in  the 
thirties." 

The  Eev.  John  Newton  said,  "I  see  in  this  world 
two  heaps  of  human  happiness  and  misery  ;  now  if  I  can 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    209 

take  but  the  smallest  bit  from  one  heap  and  add  it  to 
the  other,  I  carry  a  point ;  if  as  I  go  home  a  child  has 
dropped  a  half-penny,  and  by  giving  it  another  I  can 
wipe  away  its  tears,  I  feel  I  have  done  something." 

A  holy  hermit,  who  had  lived  for  six  years  in  a  cave 
of  the  Thebaid,  fasting,  praying,  and  performing  severe 
penances,  spending  his  whole  life  in  trying  to  make 
himself  of  some  account  with  God,  that  he  might  be 
sure  of  a  seat  in  Paradise,  prayed  to  be  shown  some 
saint  greater  than  himself,  in  order  that  he  might  pat- 
tern after  him  to  reach  still  greater  heights  of  holiness. 
The  same  night  an  angel  came  to  him  and  said,  "  If  thou 
wouldst  excel  all  others  in  virtue  and  sanctity,  strive 
to  imitate  a  certain  minstrel  who  goes  begging  and  sing- 
ing from  door  to  door."  The  hermit,  much  chagrined, 
sought  the  minstrel  and  asked  him  how  he  had  managed 
to  make  himself  so  acceptable  to  God.  The  minstrel 
hung  down  his  head  and  replied,  "Do  not  mock  me, 
holy  father  ;  I  have  performed  no  good  works,  and  I  am 
not  worthy  to  pray.  I  only  go  from  door  to  door  to 
amuse  people  with  my  viol  and  my  flute."  The  hermit 
insisted  that  he  must  have  done  some  good  deeds.  The 
minstrel  replied,  "  Nay,  I  know  of  nothing  good  that  I 
have  done."  "  But  how  hast  thou  become  a  beggar  ? 
Hast  thou  spent  thy  substance  in  riotous  living  ? " 
"  Nay,  not  so,"  replied  the  minstrel.  "  I  met  a  poor 
woman  running  hither  and  thither,  distracted,  because 
her  husband  and  children  had  been  sold  into  slavery  to 
pay  a  debt.  I  took  her  home  and  protected  her  from 
certain  sons  of  Belial,  for  she  was  very  beautiful.  I 
gave  her  all  I  possessed  to  redeem  her  family  and  re- 
turned her  to  her  husband  and  children.  Is  there  any 
man  who  would  not  have  done  the  same  ?  "  The  hermit 
shed  tears,  and  said  in  all  his  life  he  had  not  done  as 
much  as  the  poor  minstrel. 

"  A  good  name  is  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches, 
and  loving  favor  than  silver  or  gold." 


210  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

A  gentleman,  traveling  through  West  Virginia,  went 
teahouse,  and  procured  food  for  himself  and  companion 
and  their  horses.  He  wanted  to  make  payment,  but  the 
woman  was  ashamed  to  take  pay  for  a  mere  act  of  kind- 
ness. He  pressed  the  money  upon  her.  Finally  she 
said,  ^^If  you  don't  think  I'm  mean,  I'll  take  one 
quarter  of  a  dollar  from  you,  so  as  to  look  at  it  now  and 
then,  for  there  has  been  no  money  in  this  house  for  a 
year." 

Do  not  take  the  world's  estimate  of  success.  The  real 
height  of  the  Washington  Monument  is  not  measured 
between  the  capstone  and  the  earth,  but  includes  the  fifty 
feet  of  solid  masonry  below.  Many  of  the  most  suc- 
cessful lives  are  like  the  rivers  of  India  which  run  un- 
der ground,  unseen  and  unheard  by  the  millions  who 
tread  above  them.  But  have  these  rivers  therefore  no 
influence  ?  Ask  the  rich  harvest  fields  if  they  feel  the 
flowing  water  beneath.  The  greatest  worth  is  never 
measured.  It  is  only  the  nearest  stars  whose  distances 
we  compute.  That  life  whose  influence  can  be  meas- 
ured by  the  world's  tape-line  of  dollars  and  corn  is  not 
worth  the  measuring. 

All  the  forces  in  nature  that  are  the  most  powerful 
are  the  quietest.  We  speak  of  the  rolling  thunder  as 
powerful ;  but  gravitation,  which  makes  no  noise,  yet 
keeps  orbs  in  their  orbits,  and  the  whole  system  in  har- 
mony, binding  every  atom  in  each  planet  to  the  great 
centre  of  all  attraction,  is  ten  thousand  times  ten  thou- 
sand times  more  powerful.  We  say  the  bright  light- 
ning is  mighty ;  so  it  is  when  it  rends  the  gnarled  oak 
into  splinters,  or  splits  solid  battlements  into  frag- 
ments ;  but  it  is  not  half  so  powerful  as  the  gentle 
light  that  comes  so  softly  from  the  skies  that  we  do 
not  feel  it,  that  travels  at  an  inconceivable  speed,  strikes 
and  yet  is  not  felt,  but  exercises  an  influence  so  great 
that  the  earth  is  clothed  with  verdure  through  its  influ- 
ence, and  all  nature  beautified  and  blessed  by  its  cease- 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.     211 

less  action.  The  things  that  make  no  noise,  make  no 
pretension,  may  be  really  the  strongest.  The  most  con- 
clusive logic  that  a  preacher  uses  in  the  pulpit  will 
never  exercise  the  influence  that  the  consistent  piety  of 
character  will  exercise  over  all  the  earth. 

The  old  Sicilian  story  relates  how  Pythias,  condemned 
to  death  through  the  hasty  anger  of  Dionysius  of  Syra- 
cuse, asked  that  he  might  go  to  his  native  Greece,  and 
arrange  his  affairs,  promising  to  return  before  the  time 
appointed  for  his  execution.  The  tyrant  laughed  his 
request  to  scorn,  saying  that  when  he  was  once  safe  out 
of  Sicily  no  one  would  answer  for  his  reappearance. 
At  this  juncture,  Damon,  a  friend  of  the  doomed  man, 
offered  to  become  surety  for  him,  and  to  die  in  his  stead 
if  he  did  not  come  back  in  time.  Dionysius  was  sur- 
prised, but  accepted  the  proposition.  When  the  fatal 
day  came,  Pythias  had  not  reached  Syracuse,  but  Damon 
remained  firm  in  his  faith  that  his  friend  would  not  fail 
him.  At  the  very  last  hour  Pythias  appeared  and  an- 
nounced himself  ready  to  die.  But  such  touching  loy- 
alty moved  even  the  iron  heart  of  Dionysius  ;  accordingly 
he  ordered  both  to  be  spared,  and  asked  to  be  allowed 
to  make  a  third  partner  in  such  a  noble  friendship. 

It  is  a  grander  thing  to  be  nobly  remembered  than  to 
be  nobly  born. 

When  Attila,  flushed  with  conquest,  appeared  with 
his  barbarian  horde  before  the  gates  of  Eome  in  452, 
Pope  Leo  alone  of  all  the  people  dared  go  forth  and  try 
to  turn  his  wrath  aside.  A  single  magistrate  followed 
him.  The  Huns  were  awed  by  the  fearless  majesty  of 
the  unarmed  old  man,  and  led  him  before  their  chief, 
whose  respect  was  so  great  that  he  agreed  not  to  enter 
the  city,  provided  a  tribute  should  be  X3aid  to  him. 

Blackie  thinks  there  is  no  kind  of  a  sermon  so  effec- 
tive as  the  example  of  a  great  man,  where  we  see  the 
thing  done  before  us,  —  actually  done,  —  the  thing  of 
which  we  were  not  even  dreaming. 


212  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

It  was  said  that  when  Washington  led  the  American 
forces  as  commanding  ofiELcer,  it  "  doubled  the  strength 
of  the  army." 

When  General  Lee  was  in  conversation  with  one  of 
his  officers  in  regard  to  a  movement  of  his  army,  a  plain 
farmer's  boy  overheard  the  general's  remark  that  he 
had  decided  to  march  upon  Gettysburg  instead  of  Har- 
risburg.  The  boy  telegraphed  this  fact  to  Governor 
Curtin.  A  special  engine  was  sent  for  the  boy.  "  I 
would  give  my  right  hand,"  said  the  governor,  "to 
know  if  this  boy  tells  the  truth."  A  corporal  replied, 
"  Governor,  I  know  that  boy  ;  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  lie  ;  there  is  not  a  drop  of  false  blood  in  his  veins." 
In  fifteen  minutes  the  Union  troops  were  marching  to 
Gettysburg,  where  they  gained  a  victory.  Character  is 
power.  The  great  thing  is  to  be  a  man,  to  have  a  high 
purpose,  a  noble  aim,  to  be  dead  in  earnest,  to  yearn  for 
the  good  and  the  true. 

"Your  lordships,"  said  Wellington  in  Parliament, 
"  must  all  feel  the  high  and  honorable  character  of  the 
late  Sir  Eobert  Peel.  I  was  long  connected  with  him  in 
public  life.  We  were  both  in  the  councils  of  our  sov- 
ereign together,  and  I  had  long  the  honor  to  enjoy  his 
private  friendship.  In  all  the  course  of  my  acquain- 
tance with  him,  I  never  knew  a  man  in  whose  truth  and 
justice  I  had  greater  confidence,  or  in  whom  I  saw  a 
more  invariable  desire  to  promote  the  public  service. 
In  the  whole  course  of  my  communication  with  him,  I 
never  knew  an  instance  in  which  he  did  not  show  the 
strongest  attachment  to  truth ;  and  I  never  saw  in  the 
whole  course  of  my  life  the  smallest  reason  for  suspect- 
ing that  he  stated  anything  which  he  did  not  firmly  be- 
lieve to  be  the  fact." 

"The  Secretary  stood  alone,"  said  Grattan  of  the 
elder  Pitt.  "  Modern  degeneracy  had  not  reached  him. 
Original  and  unaccommodating,  the  features  of  his  char- 
acter had  the  hardihood  of  antiquity.    His  august  mind 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    213 

overawed  majesty ;  and  one  of  his  sovereigns  thought 
royalty  so  impaired  in  his  presence,  that  he  conspired 
to  remove  him,  in  order  to  be  relieved  from  his  superi- 
ority. No  state  chicanery,  no  narrow  system  of  vicious 
politics,  sunk  him  to  the  level  of  the  vulgar  great ;  but, 
overbearing,  persuasive,  and  impracticable,  his  object 
was  England ;  his  ambition,  fame.  A  character  so  ex- 
alted, so  unsullied,  so  various,  so  authoritative,  astonished 
a  corrupt  age,  and  the  Treasury  trembled  at  the  name 
of  Pitt  through  all  the  classes  of  venality.  Corruption 
imagined,  indeed,  that  she  had  found  defects  in  this 
statesman,  and  talked  much  of  the  inconsistency  of  his 
policy,  and  much  of  the  ruin  of  his  victories  ;  but  the 
history  of  his  country  and  the  calamities  of  the  enemy 
answered  and  refuted  her.  Upon  the  whole,  there  was 
in  this  man  something  that  could  create,  subvert,  or  re- 
form ;  an  understanding,  a  spirit,  and  an  eloquence  to 
summon  mankind  to  united  exertion,  or  to  break  the 
bonds  of  slavery  asunder,  and  to  rule  the  wilderness  of 
free  minds  with  unbounded  authority ;  something  that 
could  establish  or  overwhelm  an  empire,  and  strike  a 
blow  in  the  world  that  would  resound  through  the  uni- 
verse." 

Pitt  was  Paymaster-General  for  George  II.  When  a 
subsidy  was  voted  a  foreign  office,  it  was  customary  for 
the  office  to  claim  one  half  per  cent,  for  honorarium. 
Pitt  astonished  the  King  of  Sardinia  by  sending  him  the 
sum  without  any  deduction,  and  further  astonished  him 
by  refusing  a  present  as  a  compliment  to  his  integrity. 
He  was  a  poor  man. 

Washington  would  take  no  pay  as  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Continental  armies.  He  would  keep  a  strict 
account  of  his  expenses;  and  these,  he  doubted  not, 
would  be  discharged. 

Eemember,  the  main  business  of  life  is  not  to  do,  but 
to  become ;  an  action  itself  has  its  finest  and  most 
enduring  fruit  in  character. 


214  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

In  1837,  after  George  Peabody  moved  to  London, 
there  came  a  commercial  crisis  in  tlie  United  States. 
Many  banks  suspended  specie  payments.  Many  mer- 
cantile houses  went  to  the  wall,  and  thousands  more 
were  in  great  distress.  Edward  Everett  said,  "The 
great  sympathetic  nerve  of  the  commercial  world,  credit, 
as  far  as  the  United  States  were  concerned,  was  for  the 
time  paralyzed."  Probably  not  a  half  dozen  men  in 
Europe  would  have  been  listened  to  for  a  moment  in 
the  Bank  of  England  upon  the  subject  of  American  se- 
curities, but  George  Peabody  was  one  of  them.  His 
name  was  already  a  tower  of  strength  in  the  commercial 
world.  In  those  dark  days  his  integrity  stood  four- 
square in  every  business  panic.  Peabody  retrieved  the 
credit  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  and,  it  might  almost 
be  said,  of  the  United  States.  His  character  was  the 
magic  wand  which  in  many  a  case  changed  almost  worth- 
less paper  into  gold.  Merchants  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  procured  large  advances  from  him,  even  before 
the  goods  consigned  to  him  had  been  sold. 

Thackeray  says,  "  Nature  has  written  a  letter  of  credit 
upon  some  men's  faces  which  is  honored  wherever  pre- 
sented. You  cannot  help  trusting  such  men;  their 
very  presence  gives  confidence.  There  is  a  '  promise  to 
pay'  in  their  very  faces  which  gives  confidence,  and 
you  prefer  it  to  another  man's  indorsement."  Charac- 
ter is  credit. 

With  most  people,  as  with  most  nations,  "  things  are 
worth  what  they  will  sell  for,"  and  the  dollar  is  might- 
ier than  the  sword.  As  good  as  gold  has  become  a 
proverb  —  as  though  it  were  the  highest  standard  of 
comparison. 

Themistocles,  having  conceived  the  design  of  transfer- 
ring the  government  of  Greece  from  the  hands  of  the 
Lacedaemonians  into  those  of  the  Athenians,  kept  his 
thoughts  continually  fixed  on  this  great  project.  Being 
at  no  time  very  nice  or  scrupulous  in  the  choice  of  his 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    215 

measures,  he  thought  anything  which  could  tend  to  the 
accomplishment  of  the  end  he  had  in  view  just  and  law- 
ful. Accordingly  in  an  assembly  of  the  people  one  day, 
he  intimated  that  he  had  a  very  important  design  to  pro- 
pose ;  but  he  could  not  communicate  it  to  the  public  at 
large,  because  the  greatest  secrecy  was  necessary  to  its 
success,  and  he  therefore  desired  that  they  would  ap- 
point a  person  to  whom  he  might  explain  himself  on  the 
subject.  Aristides  was  unanimously  selected  by  the 
assembly,  which  deferred  entirely  to  his  opinion.  The- 
mistocles,  taking  him  aside,  told  him  that  the  design  he 
had  conceived  was  to  burn  the  fleet  belonging  to  the 
rest  of  the  Grecian  states,  which  then  lay  in  a  neigh- 
boring port,  when  Athens  would  assuredly  become  mis- 
tress of  all  Greece.  Aristides  returned  to  the  assembly, 
and  declared  to  them  that  nothing  could  be  more  advan- 
tageous to  the  commonwealth  than  the  project  of  The- 
mistocles,  but  that,  at  the  same  time,  nothing  in  the  world 
could  be  more  unfair.  The  assembly  unanimously  de- 
clared that,  since  such  was  the  case,  Themistocles  should 
wholly  abandon  his  project. 

A  tragedy  by  ^schylus  was  once  represented  before 
the  Athenians,  in  which  it  was  said  of  one  of  the  char- 
acters, "  that  he  cared  not  more  to  be  just  than  to  appear 
so."  At  these  words  all  eyes  were  instantly  turned 
upon  Aristides  as  the  man  who,  of  all  the  Greeks,  most 
merited  that  distinguished  reputation.  Ever  after  he 
received,  by  universal  consent,  the  surname  of  the  Just, 
—  a  title,  says  Plutarch,  truly  royal,  or  rather  truly  di- 
vine. This  remarkable  distinction  roused  envy,  and 
envy  prevailed  so  far  as  to  pfocure  his  banishment 
for  years,  upon  the  unjust  suspicion  that  his  influence 
with  the  people  was  dangerous  to  their  freedom.  When 
the  sentence  was  passed  by  his  countrymen,  Aristides 
himself  was  present  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  a  stranger 
who  stood  near,  and  could  not  write,  applied  to  him  to 
write  for  him  on  his  shell-ballot.    "  What  name  ?  "  asked 


216  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  philosopher.  "Aristides,"  replied  the  stranger. 
"  Do  you  know  him,  then  ?  "  said  Aristides,  ^'  or  has  he 
in  any  way  injured  you  ?  "  "  Neither/'  said  the  other, 
"but  it  is  for  this  very  thing  I  would  he  were  con- 
demned. I  can  go  nowhere  but  I  hear  of  Aristides  the 
Just."  Aristides  inquired  no  further,  but  took  the 
shell,  and  wrote  his  name  on  it  as  desired.  The  absence 
of  Aristides  soon  dissipated  the  apprehensions  which 
his  countrymen  had  so  idly  indulged.  He  was  in  a  short 
time  recalled,  and  for  many  years  after  took  a  leading 
part  in  the  affairs  of  the  republic,  without  showing  the 
least  resentment  against  his  enemies,  or  seeking  any 
other  gratification  than  that  of  serving  his  countrymen 
with  fidelity  and  honor.  The  virtues  of  Aristides  did 
not  pass  without  reward.  He  had  two  daughters,  who 
were  educated  at  the  expense  of  the  state,  and  to  whom 
portions  were  allotted  from  the  public  treasury. 

The  strongest  proof,  however,  of  the  justice  and  in- 
tegrity of  Aristides  is,  that  notwithstanding  he  had 
possessed  the  highest  employments  in  the  republic,  and 
had  the  absolute  disposal  of  its  treasures,  yet  he  died 
so  poor  as  not  to  leave  money  enough  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  his  funeral. 

Men  of  character  are  the  conscience  of  the  society  to 
which  they  belong ;  they,  and  not  the  police,  guarantee 
the  execution  of  the  laws.  Their  influence  is  the  bul- 
wark of  good  government. 

It  was  said  of  the  first  Emperor  Alexander  of  Eussia, 
that  his  personal  character  was  equivalent  to  a  constitu- 
tion. Of  Montaigne,  it  was  said  that  his  high  reputa- 
tion for  integrity  was  a  better  protection  for  him  than 
a  regiment  of  horse  would  have  been,  he  being  the  only 
man  among  the  French  gentry  who,  during  the  wars  of 
the  Fronde,  kept  his  castle  gates  unbarred.  There  are 
men,  fortunately  for  the  world,  who  would  rather  he  right 
than  he  Pi^esident. 

Fisher  Ames,  while  in  Congress,  said  of  Roger  Sher- 


LAFAYETTE 
"He  believed  that  he  was  born,  not  for  himself,  but  for  the  whole  world." 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    217 

man,  of  Connecticut :  "  If  I  am  absent  during  a  discus- 
sion of  a  subject,  and  consequently  know  not  on  which 
side  to  vote,  when  I  return  I  always  look  at  Eoger 
Sherman,  for  I  am  sure  if  I  vote  with  him,  I  shall  vote 
right." 

Character  gravitates  upward,  as  with  a  celestial  gravi- 
tation, while  mere  genius,  without  character,  gravitates 
downward.  How  often  we  see  in  school  or  college 
young  men,  who  are  apparently  dull  and  even  stupid, 
rise  gradually  and  surely  above  others  who  are  without 
character,  merely  because  the  former  have  an  upward 
tendency  in  their  lives,  a  reaching-up  principle,  which 
gradually  but  surely  unfolds,  and  elevates  them  to  posi- 
tions of  honor  and  trust.  There  is  something  which 
everybody  admires  in  an  aspiring  soul,  one  whose  ten- 
dency is  upward  and  onward,  in  spite  of  hindrances  and 
in  defiance  of  obstacles. 

We  may  try  to  stifle  the  voice  of  the  mysterious  an- 
gel within,  but  it  always  says  "  yes  "  to  right  actions 
and  "  no  "  to  wrong  ones.  No  matter  whether  we  heed 
it  or  not,  no  power  can  change  its  decision  one  iota. 
Through  health,  through  disease,  through  prosperity 
and  adversity,  this  faithful  servant  stands  behind  us  in 
the  shadow  of  ourselves,  never  intruding,  but  weighing 
every  act  we  perform,  every  word  we  utter,  pronouncing 
the  verdict  "  right  "  or  "wrong." 

Francis  Horner,  of  England,  was  a  man  of  whom 
Sydney  Smith  said,  that  "  the  ten  commandments  were 
stamped  upon  his  forehead."  The  valuable  and  peculiar 
light  in  which  Horner's  history  is  calculated  to  inspire 
every  right-minded  youth  is  this :  he  died  at  the  age 
of  thirty-eight,  possessed  of  greater  influence  than  any 
other  private  man,  and  admired,  beloved,  trusted,  and 
deplored  by  all  except  the  heartless  and  the  base.  No 
greater  homage  was  ever  paid  in  Parliament  to  any  de- 
ceased member.  How  was  this  attained  ?  By  rank  ? 
He  was  the  son  of  an  Edinburgh  merchant.    By  wealth  ? 


218  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Neither  lie  nor  any  of  his  relatives  ever  had  a  superflu- 
ous sixpence.  By  office  ?  He  held  but  one,  and  that 
for  only  a  few  years,  of  no  influence,  and  with  very  little 
pay.  By  talents  ?  His  were  not  splendid,  and  he  had 
no  genius.  Cautious  and  slow,  his  only  ambition  was 
to  be  right.  By  eloquence  ?  He  spoke  in  calm,  good 
taste,  without  any  of  the  oratory  that  either  terrifies  or 
seduces.  By  any  fascination  of  manner  ?  His  was 
only  correqt  and  agreeable.  By  what  was  it,  then  ? 
Merely  by  sense,  industry,  good  principles  and  a  good 
heart,  qualities  which  no  well  constituted  mind  need 
ever  despair  of  attaining.  It  was  the  force  of  his  char- 
acter that  raised  him ;  and  this  character  Avas  not  im- 
pressed on  him  by  nature,  but  formed,  out  of  no  pecu- 
liarly fine  elements,  by  himself.  There  were  many  in 
the  House  of  Commons  of  far  greater  ability  and  elo- 
quence. But  no  one  surpassed  him  in  the  combination 
of  an  adequate  portion  of  these  with  moral  worth. 
Horner  was  born  to  show  what  moderate  powers,  unaided 
by  anything  whatever  except  culture  and  goodness,  may 
achieve,  even  when  these  powers  are  displayed  amidst 
the  competition  and  jealousies  of  public  life. 

^'  When  it  was  reported  in  Paris  that  the  great  Na- 
poleon was  dead,  I  passed  the  Palais  Royal,"  says  a 
French  writer,  "  where  a  public  crier  called,  *  Here  's 
your  account  of  the  death  of  Bonaparte.'  This  cry 
which  once  would  have  appalled  all  Europe  fell  perfectly 
flat.  I  entered,"  he  adds,  ^'several  cafes,  and  found 
the  same  indifference,  —  coldness  everywhere ;  no  one 
seemed  interested  or  troubled.  This  man,  who  had 
conquered  Europe  and  awed  the  world,  had  inspired 
neither  the  love  nor  the  admiration  of  even  his  own 
countrymen.  He  had  impressed  the  world  with  his 
marvelousness,  and  had  inspired  astonishment  but  not 
love." 

Emerson  says  that  Napoleon  did  all  that  in  him  lay 
to  live  and  thrive  without  moral  principle.     It  was  the 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    219 

nature  of  things,  the  eternal  law  of  man  and  of  the 
world,  which  balked  and  ruined  him  ;  and  the  result,  in 
a  million  attempts  of  this  kind,  will  be  the  same.  His 
was  an  experiment,  under  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions, to  test  the  powers  of  intellect  without  conscience. 
Never  elsewhere  was  such  a  leader  so  endowed,  and  so 
weaponed ;  never  has  another  leader  found  such  aids 
and  followers.  And  what  was  the  result  of  this  vast 
talent  and  power,  of  these  immense  armies,  burned 
cities,  squandered  treasures,  immolated  millions  of  men, 
of  this  demoralized  Europe  ?  He  left  France  smaller, 
poorer,  feebler  than  he  found  her. 

A  hundred  years  hence  what  difference  will  it  make 
whether  you  were  rich  or  poor,  a  peer  or  a  peasant  ? 
But  what  difference  may  it  not  make  whether  you  did 
what  was  right  or  what  was  wrong  ? 

"  The  ^  Vicar  of  Wakefield,'  "  said  George  William 
Curtis,  "  was  sold,  through  Dr.  Johnson's  mediation,  for 
sixty  pounds  ;  and  ten  years  after,  the  author  died. 
With  what  love  do  we  hang  over  its  pages  !  What 
springs  of  feeling  it  has  opened  !  Goldsmith's  books 
are  influences  and  friends  forever,  yet  the  five  thou- 
sandth copy  was  never  announced,  and  Oliver  Gold- 
smith, M.  D.,  often  wanted  a  dinner  !  Horace  Walpole, 
the  coxcomb  of  literature,  smiled  at  him  contemptu- 
ously from  his  gilded  carriage.  Goldsmith  struggled 
cheerfully  with  his  adverse  fate,  and  died.  But  then 
sad  mourners,  whom  he  had  aided  in  their  affliction, 
gathered  around  his  bed,  and  a  lady  of  distinction, 
whom  he  had  only  dared  to  admire  at  a  distance,  came 
and  cut  a  lock  of  his  hair  for  remembrance.  When  I 
see  Goldsmith,  thus  carrying  his  heart  in  his  hand  like 
a  palm  branch,  I  look  on  him  as  a  successful  man, 
whom  adversity  could  not  bring  down  from  the  level  of 
his  lofty  nature." 

Dr.  Maudsley  tells  us  that  the  aims  which  chiefly 
predominate  —  riches,    position,    power,    applause    of 


220  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

men  —  are  such  as  inevitably  breed  and  foster  many 
bad  passions  in  the  eager  competition  to  attain  them. 
Hence,  in  fact,  come  disappointed  ambition,  jealousy, 
grief  from  loss  of  fortune,  all  the  torments  of  wounded 
self-love,  and  a  thousand  other  mental  sufferings,  —  the 
commonly  enumerated  moral  causes  of  insanity.  They 
are  griefs  of  a  kind  to  which  a  rightly  developed  nature 
should  not  fall  a  prey.  There  need  be  no  envy  nor 
jealousy,  if  a  man  were  to  consider  that  it  mattered  not 
whether  he  did  a  great  thing  or  some  one  else  did  it, 
Nature's  only  concern  being  that  it  should  be  done ;  no 
grief  from  loss  of  fortune,  if  he  were  to  estimate  at  its 
true  value  that  which  fortune  can  bring  him,  and  that 
which  fortune  can  never  bring  him  ;  no  wounded  self- 
love,  if  he  had  learned  well  the  eternal  lesson  of  life,  — 
self-renunciation. 

Soon  after  his  establishment  in  Philadelphia  Frank- 
lin was  offered  a  piece  for  publication  in  his  newspaper. 
Being  very  busy,  he  begged  the  gentleman  would  leave 
it  for  consideration.  The  next  day  the  author  called 
and  asked  his  opinion  of  it.  "  Well,  sir,"  replied  Frank- 
lin, "  I  am  sorry  to  say  I  think  it  highly  scurrilous  and 
defamatory.  But  being  at  a  loss  on  account  of  my  pov- 
erty whether  to  reject  it  or  not,  I  thought  I  would  put 
it  to  this  issue  :  At  night,  when  my  work  was  done,  I 
bought  a  two-penny  loaf,  on  which  I  supped  heartily, 
and  then,  wrapping  myself  in  my  great  coat,  slept  very 
soundly  on  the  floor  till  morning,  when  another  loaf 
and  mug  of  water  afforded  a  pleasant  breakfast.  Now, 
sir,  since  I  can  live  very  comfortably  in  this  manner, 
why  should  I  prostitute  my  press  to  personal  hatred  or 
party  passion  for  a  more  luxurious  living  ?  " 

One  cannot  read  this  anecdote  of  our  American  sage 
without  thinking  of  Socrates'  reply  to  King  Arche- 
laus,  who  had  pressed  him  to  give  up  preaching  in  the 
dirty  streets  of  Athens,  and  come  and  live  with  him  in 
his  splendid  courts:  "Meal,  please  your  Majesty,  is  a 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    221 

half-penny  a  peck  at  Athens,  and  water  I  get  for  no- 
thing ! " 

During  Alexander's  march  into  Africa  he  found  a 
people  dwelling  in  peace,  who  knew  neither  war  nor 
conquest.  While  he  was  interviewing  the  chief  two  of 
his  subjects  brought  a  case  before  him  for  judgment. 
The  dispute  was  this  :  the  one  had  bought  of  the  other 
a  pietje  of  ground,  which,  after  the  purchase,  was  found 
to  contain  a  treasure,  for  which  he  felt  bound  to  pay. 
The  other  refused  to  receive  anything,  stating  that  when 
he  sold  the  ground  he  sold  it  with  all  the  advantages 
apparent  or  concealed  which  it  might  be  found  to  afford. 
The  king  said,  "One  of  you  has  a  daughter  and  the 
other  a  son  ;  let  them  be  married  and  the  treasure  given 
to  them  as  a  dowry."  Alexander  was  surprised,  and 
said,  ^^If  this  case  had  been  in  our  country  it  would 
have  been  dismissed,  and  the  king  would  have  kept  the 
treasure."  The  chief  said,  "  Does  the  sun  shine  on  your 
country,  and  the  rain  fall,  and  the  grass  grow  ?  "  Alex- 
ander replied,  "  Certainly."  The  chief  then  asked, 
"  Are  there  any  cattle  ?  "  "  Certainly,"  was.  the  reply. 
The  chief  replied,  "  Then  it  is  for  these  innocent  cattle 
that  the  Great  Being  permits  the  rain  to  fall  and  the 
grass  to  grow." 

A  good  character  is  a  precious  thing,  above  rubies, 
gold,  crowns,  or  kingdoms,  and  the  work  of  making  it  is 
the  noblest  labor  on  earth. 

Professor  Blackie  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh 
said  to  a  class  of  young  men  :  "  Money  is  not  needful ; 
power  is  not  needful ;  liberty  is  not  needful ;  even  health 
is  not  the  one  thing  needful ;  but  character  alone  is  that 
which  can  truly  save  us,  and  if  we  are  not  saved  in  this 
sense,  we  certainly  must  be  damned."  It  has  been  said 
that  "  when  poverty  is  your  inheritance,  virtue  must  be 
your  capital." 

During  the  American  Eevolution,  while  General  Eeed 
was  President  of  Congress,  the  British  Commissioners 


222  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

offered  him  a  bribe  of  ten  thousand  guineas  to  desert 
the  cause  of  his  country.  His  reply  was,  "  Gentlemen, 
I  am  poor,  very  poor  ;  i)ut  your  king  is  not  rich  enough 
to  buy  me." 

"  When  Le  Pere  Bourdaloue  preached  at  Eouen,"  said 
Pere  Arrius,  ^'  the  tradesmen  forsook  their  shops,  law- 
yers their  clients,  physicians  their  sick,  and  tavern- 
keepers  their  bars  ;  but  when  I  preached  the  following 
year  I  set  all  things  to  rights,  —  every  man  minded  his 
own  business.'' 

"  I  fear  John  Knox's  prayers  more  than  an  army  of 
ten  thousand  men,"  said  Mary,  Queen  of  Scotland. 

When  Pope  Paul  IV.  heard  of  the  death  of  Calvin 
he  exclaimed  with  a  sigh,  "Ah,  the  strength  of  that 
proud  heretic  lay  in  —  riches  ?  No.  Honors  ?  No.  But 
nothing  could  move  him  from  his  course.  Holy  Virgin  ! 
With  two  such  servants,  our  church  would  soon  be  mis- 
tress of  both  worlds." 

Garibaldi's  power  over  his  men  amounted  to  fascina- 
tion. Soldiers  and  officers  were  ready  to  die  for  him. 
His  will  power  seemed  to  enslave  them.  In  Rome  he 
called  for  forty  volunteers  to  go  where  half  of  them 
would  be  sure  to  be  killed  and  the  others  probably 
wounded.  The  whole  battalion  rushed  forward;  and 
they  had  to  draw  lots,  so  eager  were  all  to  obey. 

What  power  of  magic  lies  in  a  great  name  !  There 
was  not  a  throne  in  Europe  that  could  stand  against 
Washington's  character,  and  in  comparison  with  it  the 
millions  of  the  Croesuses  would  look  ridiculous.  What 
are  the  works  of  avarice  compared  with  the  names  of 
Lincoln,  Grant,  or  Garfield  ?  A  few  names  have  ever 
been  the  leaven  which  has  preserved  many  a  nation 
from  premature  decay. 

"But  strew  his  ashes  to  the  wind 

Whose  sword  or  voice  has  served  mankind  — 
And  is  he  dead,  whose  glorious  mind 

Lifts  thine  on  high  ?  — 
To  live  in  hearts  we  leave  behind 

Is  not  to  die." 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    223 

Mr.  Gladstone  gave  in  Parliament,  when  announcing 
the  death  of  Princess  Alice,  a  touching  story  of  sick- 
room ministration.  The  Princess'  little  boy  was  ill 
with  diphtheria ;  the  physician  had  cautioned  her  not 
to  inhale  the  poisoned  breath  ;  the  child  was  tossing  in 
the  delirium  of  fever.  The  mother  took  the  little  one 
in  her  lap  and  stroked  his  fevered  brow  ;  the  boy  threw 
his  arms  around  her  neck,  and  whispered,  "Kiss  me, 
mamma  ; "  the  mother's  instinct  was  stronger  than  the 
physician's  caution ;  she  pressed  her  lips  to  the  child's, 
but  lost  her  life. 

At  a  large  dinner-party  given  by  Lord  Stratford  after 
the  Crimean  War,  it  was  proposed  that  every  one  should 
write  on  a  slip  of  paper  the  name  which  appeared  most 
likely  to  descend  to  posterity  with  renown.  When  the 
papers  were  opened  every  one  of  them  contained  the 
name  of  Plorence  Nightingale. 

Leckey  says  that  the  first  hospital  ever  established  was 
opened  by  that  noble  Christian  woman,  Fabiola,  in  the 
fourth  century.  The  two  foremost  names  in  modern 
philanthropy  are  those  of  John  Howard  and  Florence 
Nightingale.  Not  a  general  of  the  Crimean  War  on 
either  side  can  be  named  by  one  person  in  ten.  The 
one  name  that  rises  instantly,  when  that  carnival  of 
pestilence  and  blood  is  suggested,  is  that  of  a  young 
woman  just  recovering  from  a  serious  illness,  Florence 
Nightingale.  A  soldier  said,  "  Before  she  came  there 
was  such  cussin'  and  swearin' ;  and  after  that  it  was  as 
holy  as  a  church."  She  robbed  war  of  half  its  terrors. 
Since  her  time  the  hospital  systems  of  all  the  nations 
during  war  have  been  changed.  No  soldier  was  braver 
and  no  patriot  truer  than  Clara  Barton,  and  wherever 
that  noble  company  of  Protestant  women  known  as  the 
Eed  Cross  Society,  —  the  cross,  I  suppose,  pointing  to 
Calvary,  and  the  red  to  the  blood  of  the  Redeemer,  — 
wherever  those  consecrated  workers  seek  to  alleviate 
the  condition  of  those  who  suffer  from  plagues,  cholera, 


224  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

fevers,  flood,  famine,  there  this  tireless  angel  moves  on 
her  pathway  of  blessing.  And  of  all  heroes,  what  nobler 
ones  than  these,  whose  names  shine  from  the  pages  of 
our  missionary  history  ?  I  never  read  of  Mrs.  Judson, 
Mrs.  Snow,  Miss  Brittain,  Miss  West,  without  feeling 
that  the  heroic  age  of  our  race  has  just  begun,  the  age 
which  opens  to  woman  the  privilege  of  following  her 
benevolent  inspirations  wheresoever  she  will,  without 
thinking  that  our  Christianity  needs  no  other  evidence. 
"  Duty  is  the  cement  without  which  all  power,  good- 
ness, intellect,  truth,  happiness,  and  love  itself  can  have 
no  permanence,  but  all  the  fabric  of  existence  crumbles 
away  from  under  us  and  leaves  us  at  last  sitting  in  the 
midst  of  a  ruin,  astonished  at  our  own  desolation."  A 
constant,  abiding  sense  of  duty  is  the  last  reason  of  cul- 
ture. 

"  I  slept  and  dreamed  that  life  is  beauty; 
I  woke  and  found  that  life  is  duty." 

We  have  no  more  right  to  refuse  to  perform  a  duty 
than  to  refuse  to  pay  a  debt.  Moral  insolvency  is  cer- 
tain to  him  who  neglects  and  disregards  his  duty  to  his 
fellow-men.  Nor  can  we  hire  another  to  perform  our 
duty.  The  mere  accident  of  having  money  does  not 
release  you  from  your  duty  to  the  world.  Nay,  it  in- 
creases it,  for  it  enables  you  to  do  a  larger  and  nobler 
duty. 

If  your  money  is  not  clean,  if  there  is  a  dirty  dollar 
in  your  millions,  you  have  not  succeeded.  If  there  is 
the  blood  of  the  poor  and  unfortunate,  of  orphans  and 
widows,  on  your  bank  account,  you  have  not  succeeded. 
If  your  wealth  has  made  others  poorer,  your  life  is  a 
failure.  If  you  have  gained  it  in  an  occupation  that 
kills,  that  shortens  the  lives  of  others,  that  poisons 
their  blood,  or  engenders  disease,  if  you  have  taken  a 
day  from  a  human  life,  if  you  have  gained  your  money 
by  that  which  has  debauched  other  lives,  you  have 
failed. 


THE  GRANDEST  THING  IN  THE   WORLD.    225 

Eemember  that  a  question  will  be  asked  you  some 
time  which  you  cannot  evade,  the  right  answer  to 
which  will  fix  your  destiny  forever  :  "  How  did  you  get 
that  fortune  ?  "  Are  other  men's  lives  in  it ;  are  others' 
hope  and  happiness  buried  in  it ;  are  others'  comforts 
sacrificed  to  it ;  are  others'  rights  buried  in  it ;  are 
others'  opportunities  smothered  in  it ;  others'  chances 
strangled  by  it ;  has  their  growth  been  stunted  by  it ; 
their  characters  stained  by  it;  have  others  a  smaller 
loaf,  a  meaner  home  ?  If  so,  you  have  failed  ;  all  your 
millions  cannot  save  you  from  the  curse,  "thou  hast 
been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  found  wanting." 

When  Walter  Scott's  publisher  and  printer  failed  and 
^600,000  of  debt  stared  them  in  the  face,  friends  came 
forward  and  offered  to  raise  monej^  enough  to  allow  him 
to  arrange  with  his  creditors.  "  No,"  said  he  proudly, 
"  this  right  hand  shall  work  it  all  off ;  if  we  lose  every- 
thing else,  we  will  at  least  keep  our  honor  unblemished." 
What  a  grand  picture  of  manliness,  of  integrity  in  this 
noble  man,  working  like  a  dray-horse  to  cancel  that  great 
debt,  throwing  off  at  white  heat  the  "  Life  of  Napoleon," 
"Woodstock,"  "The  Tales  of  a  Grandfather,"  articles 
for  the  "  Quarterly,"  and  so  on,  all  written  in  the  midst  of 
great  sorrow,  pain,  and  ruin.  "  I  could  not  have  slept 
soundly,"  he  writes,  "  as  I  now  can  under  the  comfort- 
able impression  of  receiving  the  thanks  of  m.j  creditors, 
and  the  conscious  feeling  of  discharging  my  duty  as  a 
man  of  honesty.  I  see  before  me  a  long,  tedious,  and 
dark  path,  but  it  leads  to  stainless  reputation.  If  I  die 
in  the  harness,  as  is  very  likely,  I  ^shall  die  with  honor." 

One  of  the  last  things  he  uttered  was,  "  I  have  been, 
perhaps,  the  most  voluminous  author  of  my  day,  and  it 
is  a  comfort  to  me  to  think  that  I  have  tried  to  unsettle 
no  man's  faith,  to  corrupt  no  man's  principles,  and  that 
I  have  written  nothing  which,  on  my  deathbed,  I  would 
wish  blotted  out." 

Although  Agassiz  refused  to  lecture  even  for  a  large 


226  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

sum  of  money,  yet  he  left  a  greater  legacy  to  the  world, 
and  left  even  more  money  to  Harvard  University 
($300,000)  than  he  would  have  left  if  he  had  taken  the 
time  to  lecture  for  money. 

Faraday  had  to  choose  between  a  fortune  of  nearly  a 
million  and  a  life  of  almost  certain  poverty  if  he  pur- 
sued science.  He  chose  poverty  and  science,  and  earned 
a  name  never  to  be  erased  from  the  book  of  fame. 

Beecher  says  that  we  are  all  building  a  soul-house  for 
eternity ;  yet  with  what  differing  architecture  and  what 
various  care ! 

What  if  a  man  should  see  his  neighbor  getting  work- 
men and  building  materials  together,  and  should  say  to 
him,  ''  What  are  you  building  ?  "  and  he  should  answer, 
'^  I  don't  exactly  know.  I  am  waiting  to  see  what  will 
come  of  it."  And  so  walls  are  reared,  and  room  is  added 
to  room,  while  the  man  looks  idly  on,  and  all  the  bystand- 
ers exclaim,  "  What  a  fool  he  is  ! "  Yet  this  is  the  way 
many  men  are  building  their  characters  for  eternity, 
adding  room  to  room,  without  plan  or  aim,  and  thought- 
lessly waiting  to  see  what  the  effect  will  be.  Such 
builders  will  never  dwell  in  "the  house  of  God,  not 
made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens." 

Some  people  build  as  cathedrals  are  built,  the  part 
nearest  the  ground  finished  ;  but  that  part  which  soars 
towards  heaven,  the  turrets  and  the  spires,  forever  in- 
complete. 

Many  men  are  mere  warehouses  full  of  merchandise  — 
the  head  and  heart  are  stuffed  with  goods.  Like  those 
houses  in  the  lower  streets  of  cities  which  were  once 
family  dwellings,  but  are  now  used  for  commercial  pur- 
poses, there  are  apartments  in  their  souls  which  were 
once  tenanted  by  taste,  and  love,  and  joy,  and  worship ; 
but  they  are  all  deserted  now,  and  the  rooms  are  filled 
with  material  things. 


ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 
*'  The  Moses  of  Coloiiiar Finance." 
"  Poverty  is  a  condition  wliicli  no  man  should  accept,  unless  it  is  forced  upon 
him  as  an  inexorable  necessity  or  astlie  alternative  of  dishonor." 

"  Comfort  and  independence  abide  with  those  who  can  postpone  their  desires." 


CHAPTER   XII. 

WEALTH    IN    ECONOMY. 

Economy  is  half  the  battle  of  life.  —  Spurgeon. 

Economy  is  the  parent  of  integrity,  of  liberty  and  ease,  and  the  beaute- 
ous sister  of  temperance,  of  cheerfulness  and  health.  —  Dr.  Johnson. 

Can  anything  be  so  elegant  as  to  have  few  wants  and  to  serve  them 
one's  self? 

As  much  wisdom  can  be  expended  on  a  private  economy  as  on  an  em- 
pire. —  Emerson. 

Riches  amassed  in  haste  will  diminish;  but  those  collected  by  hand  and 
little  by  little  will  multiply.  —  Goethe. 

No  gain  is  so  certain  as  that  which  proceeds  from  the  economical  use  of 
what  you  have.  —  Latin  Proverb. 

Beware  of  little  extravagances :  a  small  leak  will  sink  a  big  ship.  — 
Franklin. 

Better  go  to  bed  supperless  than  rise  with  debts.  —  German  Proverb. 

Debt  is  like  any  other  trap,  easy  enough  to  get  into,  but  hard  enough  to 
get  out  of.  —  H.  W.  Shaw. 

Sense  can  support  herself  handsomely  in  most  countries  on  some  eighteen 
pence  a  day;  but  for  phantasy,  planets  and  solar  systems  will  not  suffice. 
—  Macaulay. 

Economy,  the  poor  man's  mint.  —  Tupper. 

I  can  get  no  remedy  against  this  consumption  of  the  purse ;  borrowing  only 
lingers  and  lingers  it  out ;  but  the  disease  is  incurable.  — Shakespeare. 

Whatever  be  your  talents,  whatever  be  your  prospects,  never  speculate 
away  on  the  chance  of  a  palace  that  which  you  may  need  as  a  provision 
against  the  workhouse.  —  Bulwer. 

Not  for  to  hide  it  in  a  hedge. 
Nor  for  a  train  attendant. 
But  for  the  glorious  privilege 
Of  being  independent. 

Burns. 

"  We  shan't  get  much  here,"  whispered  a  lady  to  her 
companion,  as  John  Murray  blew  out  one  of  the  two 
caudles  by  whose  light  he  had  been  writing  when  they 


228  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

asked  him  to  contribute  to  some  benevolent  object.  He 
listened  to  their  story  and  gave  one  hundred  dollars. 
"  Mr.  Murray,  I  am  very  agreeably  surprised,"  said  the 
lady  quoted ;  "  I  did  not  expect  to  get  a  cent  from  you." 
The  old  Quaker  asked  the  reason  for  her  opinion ;  and, 
when  told,  said,  "  That,  ladies,  is  the  reason  I  am  able 
to  let  you  have  the  hundred  dollars.  It  is  by  practi- 
cing economy  that  I  save  up  money  with  which  to  do 
charitable  actions.     One  candle  is  enough  to  talk  by." 

Emerson  relates  the  following  anecdote  :  "  An  opulent 
merchant  in  Boston  was  called  on  by  a  friend  in  behalf 
of  a  charity.  At  that  time  he  was  admonishing  his 
clerk  for  using  whole  wafers  instead  of  halves  ;  his 
friend  thought  the  circumstance  unprojoitious  ;  but  to 
his  surprise,  on  listening  to  the  appeal,  the  merchant 
subscribed  five  hundred  dollars.  The  applicant  ex- 
pressed his  astonishment  that  any  person  who  was  so 
particular  about  half  a  wafer  should  present  five  hun- 
dred dollars  to  a  charity ;  but  the  merchant  said,  "  It 
is  by  saving  half  wafers,  and  attending  to  such  little 
things,  that  I  have  now  something  to  give." 

"  How  did  you  acquire  your  great  fortune  ?  "  asked  a 
friend  of  Lampis,  the  shipowner.  "  My  great  fortune, 
easily,"  was  the  reply ;  "  my  small  one,  by  dint  of  ex- 
ertion." 

Four  years  from  the  time  Marshall  Field  left  the 
rocky  New  England  farm  to  seek  his  fortune  in  Chicago 
he  was  admitted  as  a  partner  in  the  firm  of  Coaley, 
Farwell  &  Co.  The  only  reason  the  modest  young  man 
gave,  to  explain  his  promotion  when  he  had  neither 
backing,  wealth,  nor  influence,  was  that  he  saved  his 
money. 

If  a  man  will  begin  at  the  age  of  twenty  and  lay  by 
twenty-six  cents  every  working  day,  investing  at  seven 
per  cent,  compound  interest,  he  will  have  thirty-two 
thousand  dollars  when  he  is  seventy  years  old.  Twenty 
cents  a  day  is  no  unusual  expenditure  for  beer  or  cigars. 


WEALTH  IN  ECONOMY.  229 

yet  ill  lifty  years  it  would  easily  amount  to  twenty  thou- 
sand dollars.  Even  a  saving  of  one  dollar  a  week  from 
the  date  of  one's  majority  would  give  him  one  thousand 
dollars  for  each  of  the  last  ten  of  the  allotted  years  of 
life.  "  What  maintains  one  vice  would  bring  up  two 
children." 

Such  rigid  economy,  such  high  courage,  enables  one 
to  surprise  the  world  with  gifts  even  if  he  is  poor.  In 
fact,  the  poor  and  the  middle  classes  give  most  in  the 
aggregate  to  missions  and  hospitals  and  to  the  poor. 
Only  frugality  enables  them  to  outdo  the  rich  on  their 
own  ground. 

But  miserliness  or  avariciousness  is  a  different  thing 
from  economy.  The  miserly  is  the  miserable  man,  who 
hoards  money  from  a  love  of  it.  A  miser  who  spends  a 
cent  upon  himself  Avhere  another  would  spend  a  quarter 
does  it  from  parsimony,  which  is  a  subordinate  charac- 
teristic of  avarice.  Of  this  the  following  is  an  illus- 
tration :  "  True,  I  should  like  some  soup,  but  I  have 
no  appetite  for  the  meat,"  said  the  dying  Ostervalde ; 
"what  is  to  become  of  that  ?  It  will  be  a  sad  waste." 
And  so  the  rich  Paris  banker  would  not  let  his  servant 
buy  meat  for  broth. 

A  writer  on  political  economy  tells  of  the  mishaps 
resulting  from  a  broken  latch  on  a  farmyard  gate. 
Every  one  going  through  would  shut  the  gate,  but  as 
the  latch  would  not  hold  it,  it  would  swing  open  with 
every  breeze.  One  day  a  pig  ran  out  into  the  woods. 
Every  one  on  the  farm  went  to  help  get  him  back.  A 
gardener  jumped  over  a  ditch -to  stop  the  pig,  and 
sprained  his  ankle  so  badly  as  to  be  confined  to  his  bed 
for  two  weeks.  When  the  cook  returned,  she  found 
that  her  linen,  left  to  dry  at  the  fire,  was  all  badly 
scorched.  The  dairymaid  in  her  excitement  left  the 
cows  untied,  and  one  of  them  broke  the  leg  of  a  colt. 
The  gardener  lost  several  hours  of  valuable  time.  Yet 
a  new  latch  would  not  have  cost  five  cents. 


230  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE, 

Guy,  the  London  bookseller,  and  afterward  tlie 
founder  of  the  great  hospital,  was  a  great  miser, 
living  in  the  back  i^art  of  his  shop,  eating  upon  an  old 
bench,  and  using  his  counter  for  a  table,  with  a  news- 
paper for  a  cloth.  He  did  not  marry.  One  day  he  was 
visited  by  "Vulture"  Hopkins,  another  well-known 
miser.  "  What  is  your  business  ?  "  asked  Guy,  lighting 
a  candle.  "  To  discuss  your  methods  of  saving  money," 
was  the  reply,  alluding  to  the  niggardly  economy  for 
which  Guy  was  famous.  On  learning  Hopkins's  busi- 
ness he  blew  out  the  light,  saying,  "  We  can  do  that  in 
the  dark."  "  Sir,  you  are  my  master  in  the  art,"  said 
the  "  Vulture ; "  "I  need  ask  no  further.  I  see  where 
your  secret  lies." 

Yet  that  kind  of  economy  which  verges  on  the  nig- 
gardly is  better  than  the  extravagance  that  laughs  at  it. 
Either,  when  carried  to  excess,  is  not  only  apt  to  cause 
misery,  but  to  ruin  the  character. 

"  Lay  by  something  for  a  rainy  day,"  said  a  gentle- 
man to  an  Irishman  in  his  service.  Not  long  afterwards 
he  asked  Patrick  how  much  he  had  added  to  his  store. 
"  Faith,  nothing  at  all,"  was  the  reply ;  "  I  did  as  you 
bid  me,  but  it  rained  very  hard  yesterday,  and  it  all 
went  —  in  drink." 

"Wealth,  a  monster  gorged 
'Mid  starving  populations." 

But  nowhere  and  at  no  period  were  these  contrasts 
more  startling  than  in  Imperial  Rome.  There  a 
whole  population  might  be  trembling  lest  they  should 
be  starved  by  the  delay  of  an  Alexandrian  corn-ship, 
while  the  upper  classes  were  squandering  fortunes  at  a 
single  banquet,  drinking  out  of  myrrhine  and  jeweled 
vases  worth  hundreds  of  pounds,  and  feasting  on  the 
brains  of  peacocks  and  the  tongues  of  nightingales. 
As  a  consequence,  disease  was  rife,  men  were  short- 
lived. At  this  time  the  dress  of  Roman  ladies  dis- 
played an  unheard-of  splendor.     The  elder  Pliny  tells 


WEALTH  IN  ECONOMY.  231 

us  that  he  himself  saw  Lollia  Paulina  dressed  for  a  be- 
trothal feast  in  a  robe  entirely  covered  with  pearls  and 
emeralds,  which  had  cost  40,000,000  sesterces,  and  which 
was  known  to  be  less  costly  than  some  of  her  other 
dresses.  Gluttony,  caprice,  extravagance,  ostentation, 
impurity,  rioted  in  the  heart  of  a  society  which  knew  of 
no  other  means  by  which  to  break  the  monotony  of  its 
weariness  or  alleviate  the  anguish  of  its  despair. 

The  expense  ridiculously  bestowed  on  the  Eoman 
feasts  passes  all  belief.  Suetonius  mentions  a  supper 
given  to  Vitellius  by  his  brother,  in  which,  among  other 
articles,  there  were  two  thousand  of  the  choicest  fishes, 
seven  thousand  of  the  most  delicate  birds,  and  one  dish, 
from  its  size  and  capacity,  named  the  segis  or  shield  of 
Minerva.  It  was  filled  chiefly  with  the  liver  of  the 
scari,  a  delicate  species  of  fish,  the  brains  of  pheasants 
and  peacocks,  and  the  tongues  of  parrots,  considered 
desirable  chiefly  because  of  their  great  cost. 

"  I  hope  that  there  will  not  be  another  sale,"  ex- 
claimed Horace  Walpole,  "  for  I  have  not  an  inch  of 
room  nor  a  farthing  left."  A  woman  once  bought  an  old 
door-plate  with  "  Thompson  "  on  it  because  she  thought 
it  might  come  in  handy  some  time.  The  habit  of  buy- 
ing what  you  don't  need  because  it  is  cheap  encourages 
extravagance.  "  Many  have  been  ruined  by  buying 
good  pennyworths." 

"Where  there  is  no  prudence,"  said  Dr.  Johnson, 
"  there  is  no  virtue." 

The  eccentric  John  Eandolph  once  sprang  from  his 
seat  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  and  exclaimed 
in  his  piercing  voice,  "  Mr.  Speaker,  I  have  found  it." 
And  then,  in  the  stillness  which  followed  this  strange 
outburst,  he  added,  "  I  have  found  the  Philosopher's 
Stone  :  it  is  Pay  as  you  f/o.^' 

Many  a  young  man  seems  to  think  that  when  he  sees 
his  name  on  a  sign  he  is  on  the  highway  to  fortune, 
and  he  begins  to  live  on  a  scale  as  though  there  was  no 


232  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

possible  chance  of  failure  ;  as  though  he  were  already 
beyond  the  danger  point.  Unfortunately  Congress  can 
pass  no  law  that  will  remedy  the  vice  of  living  beyond 
one's  means. 

"  The  prosperity  of  fools  shall  destroy  them."  "  How- 
ever easy  it  may  be  to  make  money,"  said  Barnum,  "  it 
is  the  most  difficult  thing  in  the  world  to  keep  it." 
Money   often  makes  the   mare  —  run  away  with  you. 

Very  few  men  know  how  to  use  money  properly. 
They  can  earn  it,  lavish  it,  hoard  it,  waste  it ;  but  to 
deal  with  it  wisely ,  as  a  means  to  an  end,  is  an  educa- 
tion difficult  of  acquirement. 

After  a  large  stained -glass  window  had  been  con- 
structed an  artist  picked  up  the  discarded  fragments 
and  made  one  of  the  most  exquisite  windows  in  Europe 
for  another  cathedral.  So  one  boy  will  pick  up  a  splen- 
did education  out  of  the  odds  and  ends  of  time  which 
others  carelessly  throw  away,  or  gain  a  fortune  by  sav- 
ing what  others  waste. 

It  has  become  a  part  of  the  new  political  economy  to 
argue  that  a  debt  on  a  church  or  a  house  or  a  firm  is  a 
desirable  thing  to  develop  character.  When  the  young 
man  starts  out  in  life  with  the  old-fashioned  idea  strong 
in  his  mind  that  debt  is  bondage  and  a  disgrace,  that  a 
mortgage  is  to  be  shunned  like  the  cholera,  and  that  to 
owe  a  dollar  that  you  cannot  pay,  unless  overtaken  by 
misfortune,  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  stealing,  then 
he  is  bound  in  so  much  at  least  to  succeed,  and  save  his 
old  age  from  being  a  burden  upon  his  friends  or  the 
state. 

To  do  your  best  you  must  own  every  bit  of  yourself. 
If  you  are  in  debt,  part  of  you  belongs  to  your  credi- 
tors. Nothing  but  actual  sin  is  so  paralyzing  to  a 
young  man's  energies  as  debt. 

The  "  loose  change  "  which  many  young  men  throw 
away  carelessly,  or  worse,  would  often  form  the  basis  of 
a  fortune  and  independence.     The  earnings  of  the  peo- 


WEALTH  IN  ECONOMY.  233 

pie  of  the  United  States,  rich  and  poor,  old  and  young, 
male  and  female,  amount  to  an  average  of  less  than 
fifty  cents  a  day.  But  it  is  by  economizing  such  sav- 
ings that  one  must  get  his  start  in  business.  The  man 
without  a  penny  is  practically  helpless,  from  a  business 
point  of  view,  except  so  far  as  he  can  immediately  util- 
ize his  powers  of  body  and  mind.  Besides,  when  a  man 
or  woman  is  driven  to  the  wall,  the  chance  of  goodness 
surviving  self-respect  and  the  loss  of  public  esteem  is 
frightfully  diminished. 

"  Money  goes  as  it  comes.'^  "  A  child  and  a  fool 
imagine  that  twenty  years  and  twenty  shillings  can 
never  be  spent." 

Live  between  extravagance  and  meanness.  Don't 
save  money  and  starve  your  mind.  "  The  very  secret 
and  essence  of  thrift  consists  in  getting  things  into 
higher  values.  Spend  upAvard,  that  is,  for  the  higher 
faculties.  Spend  for  the  mind  rather  than  for  the  body, 
for  culture  rather  than  for  amusement.  Some  young 
men  are  too  stingy  to  buy  the  daily  papers,  and  are  very 
ignorant  and  narrow.  "  There  is  that  withholdeth  more 
than  is  meet,  but  it  tendeth  to  poverty."  Don't  squeeze 
out  of  your  life  and  comfort  and  family  what  you  save." 

Liberal,  not  lavish,  is  Nature's  hand.  Even  God,  it 
is  said,  cannot  afford  to  be  extravagant.  When  He  in- 
creased the  loaves  and  fishes,  He  commanded  to  gather 
up  the  fragments,  that  nothing  be  lost. 

"  Nature  uses  a  grinding  economy,"  says  Emerson, 
"  working  up  all  that  is  wasted  to-day  into  to-morrow's 
creation ;  not  a  superfluous  grain-  of  sand  for  all  the  os- 
tentation she  makes  of  expense  and  public  works.  She 
flung  us  out  in  her  plenty,  but  we  cannot  shed  a  hair  or 
a  paring  of  a  nail  but  instantly  she  snatches  at  the 
shred  and  appropriates  it  to  her  general  stock."  Last 
summer's  flowers  and  foliage  decayed  in  autumn  only  to 
enrich  the  earth  this  year  for  other  forms  of  beauty. 
Nature  will  not  even  wait  for  our  friends  to  see  us,  un- 


234  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

less  we  die  at  home.     The  moment  the  breath  has  left 
the  body  she  begins  to  take  us  to  i)ieces,  that  the  parts 
may  be  used  again  for  other  creations. 
Mark  the  following  contrast :  — 

1772.  1822. 

Man,  to  the  plow;  Man,  tally-ho; 

Wife,  to  the  cow;  Wife,  piano; 

Girl,  to  the  sow;  Miss,  silk  and  satin ; 

Boy,  to  the  mow;  B03',  Greek  and  Latin; 

And  your  rents  will  be  netted.  And  you  '11  all  be  gazetted. 
Hone's  Works.  The  Times. 

More  than  a  lifetime  has  elapsed  since  the  above  was 
published,  but  instead  of  returning  to  the  style  of  1772, 
our  farmers  have  out-Heroded  Herod  in  the  direction  of 
the  fashion  of  1822,  and  many  a  farmhouse,  like  the 
home  of  Artemas  Ward,  may  be  known  by  the  cupola 
and  the  mortgage  with  which  it  is  decorated. 

It  is  by  the  mysterious  power  of  economy,  it  has  been 
said,  that  the  loaf  is  multiplied,  that  using  does  not 
waste,  that  little  becomes  much,  that  scattered  frag- 
ments grow  to  unity,  and  that  out  of  nothing  or  next  to 
nothing  comes  the  miracle  of  something.  It  is  not 
merely  saving,  still  less,  parsimony.  It  is  foresight 
and  arrangement,  insight  and  combination,  causing 
inert  things  to  labor,  useless  things  to  serve  our  neces- 
sities, perishing  things  to  renew  their  vigor,  and  all 
things  to  exert  themselves  for  human  comfort. 

English  working  men  and  women  work  very  hard, 
seldom  take  a  holiday,  and  though  they  get  nearly 
double  the  wages  of  the  same  classes  in  France,  yet 
save  very  little.  The  millions  earned  by  them  slip  out 
of  their  hands  almost  as  soon  as  obtained  to  satisfy  the 
pleasures  of  the  moment.  In  France  every  house- 
keeper is  taught  the  art  of  making  much  out  of  little. 
"I  am  simply  astonished,"  writes  an  American  lady 
stopping  in  France,  "at  the  number  of  good  wholesome 
dishes  which  my  friend  here  makes  for  her  table  from 
things,  which  at  home,  I  always  throw  away.     Dainty 


WEALTH  IN  ECONOMY.  235 

little  dishes  from  scraps  of  cold  meat,  from  hard  crusts 
of  bread,  delicately  prepared  and  seasoned,  from  almost 
everything  and  nothing.  And  yet  there  is  no  feeling  of 
stinginess  or  want." 

"  I  wish  I  could  write  all  across  the  sky,  in  letters  of 
gold,"  says  Kev.  William  Marsh,  "the  one  word,  sav- 
ings-bank." 

Boston  savings-banks  have  $130,000,000  on  deposit, 
mostly  saved  in  driblets.  Josiah  Quincy  used  to  say 
that  the  servant  girls  built  most  of  the  palaces  on  Bea- 
con Street. 

"  So  apportion  your  wants  that  your  means  may  ex- 
ceed them,"  says  Bulwer.  "  With  one  hundred  pounds 
a  year  I  jnay  need  no  man's  help ;  I  may  at  least  have 
<  my  crust  of  bread  and  liberty.'  But  with  five  thou- 
sand pounds  a  year  I  may  dread  a  ring  at  my  bell ;  I 
may  have  my  tyrannical  master  in  servants  whose 
wages  I  cannot  pay  ;  my  exile  may  be  at  the  fiat  of  the 
first  long-suffering  man  who  enters  a  judgment  against 
me  ;  for  the  flesh  that  lies  nearest  my  heart  some  Shy- 
lock  may  be  dusting  his  scales  and  whetting  his  knife. 
Every  man  is  needy  who  spends  more  than  he  has ;  no 
man  is  needy  who  spends  less.  I  may  so  ill  manage, 
that  with  five  thousand  pounds  a  year  I  purchase  the 
worst  evils  of  poverty, — terror  and  shame;  I  may  so 
well  manage  my  money,  that  with  one  hundred  pounds 
a  year  I  purchase  the  best  blessings  of  wealth,  —  safety 
and  respect." 

Edmund  Burke,  speaking  on  Economic  Eeform, 
quoted  from  Cicero  :  "  Magnum  vectigal  est  parsimo- 
nia,"  accenting  the  second  word  on  the  first  syllable. 
Lord  North  whispered  a  correction,  when  Burke  turned 
the  mistake  to  advantage.  "  The  noble  lord  hints  that 
I  have  erred  in  the  quantity  of  a  principal  word  in  my 
quotation;  I  rejoice  at  it,  sir,  because  it  gives  me  an 
opportunity  of  repeating  the  inestimable  adage, — 
*  Magnum  vectigal  est   parsimonia.' "     The  sentiment, 


236  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

meaning  "  Thrift  is  a  good  income/'  is  well  worthy  of 
emphatic  repetition  by  us  all. 

Washington  examined  the  minutest  expenditures  of 
his  family,  even  when  President  of  the  United  States. 
He  understood  that  without  economy  none  can  be  rich, 
and  with  it  none  need  be  poor. 

"I  make  a  point  of  paying  my  own  bills/'  said  Wel- 
lington. 

John  Jacob  Astor  said  that  the  first  thousand  dollars 
cost  him  more  effort  than  all  of  his  millions.  Boys 
who  are  careless  with  their  dimes  and  quarters,  just  be- 
cause they  have  so  few,  never  get  this  first  thousand, 
and  without  it  no  fortune  is  possible. 

To  find  out  uses  for  the  persons  or  things  which  are 
now  wasted  in  life  is  to  be  the  glorious  work  of  the 
men  of  the  next  generation,  and  that  which  will  con- 
tribute most  to  their  enrichment. 

Economizing  "  in  spots  "  or  by  freaks  is  no  economy 
at  all.     It  must  be  done  by  management. 

Learn  early  in  life  to  say  ^'  I  can't  afford  it."  It  is 
an  indication  of  power  and  courage  and  manliness.  Dr. 
Franklin  said,  "  It  is  not  our  own  eyes,  but  other  peo- 
ple's, that  ruin  us."  "  Eashion  wears  out  more  apparel 
than  the  man,"  says  Shakespeare. 

"  Of  what  a  hideous  progeny  of  ill  is  debt  the  father," 
said  Douglas  Jerrold.  "What  meanness,  what  inva- 
sions of  self-respect,  what  cares,  what  double-dealing ! 
How  in  due  season  it  will  carve  the  frank,  open  face 
into  wrinkles  ;  how  like  a  knife  it  will  stab  the  honest 
heart.  And  then  its  transformations,  —  how  it  has  been 
known  to  change  a  goodly  face  into  a  mask  of  brass  ; 
how  with  the  evil  custom  of  debt  has  the  true  man 
become  a  callous  trickster  !  A  freedom  from  debt,  and 
what  nourishing  sweetness  may  be  found  in  cold  water ; 
what  toothsomeness  in  a  dry  crust ;  what  ambrosial 
nourishment  in  a  hard  eg^  !  Be  sure  of  it,  he  who 
dines  out  of  debt,  though  his  meal  be  a  biscuit  and  an 


WEALTH  IN  ECONOMY.  237 

onion,  dines  in  '  The  Apollo.'  And  then,  for  raiment, 
what  warmth  in  a  threadbare  coat,  if  the  tailor's  receipt 
be  in  your  pocket !  What  Tyrian  purple  in  the  faded 
waistcoat,  the  vest  not  owed  for ;  how  glossy  the  well- 
worn  hat,  if  it  covers  not  the  aching  head  of  a  debtor  ! 
Next,  the  home  sweets,  the  outdoor  recreation  of  the 
free  man.  The  street  door  falls  not  a  knell  in  his 
heart ;  the  foot  on  the  staircase,  though  he  lives  on  the 
third  pair,  sends  no  spasm  through  his  anatomy  ;  at  the 
rap  of  his  door  he  can  crow  '  come  in,'  and  his  pulse 
still  beats  healthfully.  See  him  abroad  !  How  he  re- 
turns look  for  look  with  any  passenger.  Poverty  is  a 
bitter  draught,  yet  may,  and  sometimes  can  with  ad- 
vantage, be  gulped  down.  Though  the  drinker  makes 
wry  faces,  there  may,  after  all,  be  a  wholesome  good- 
ness in  the  cup.  But  debt,  however  courteously  it  may 
be  offered,  is  the  Cup  of  Siren ;  and  the  wine,  spiced 
and  delicious  though  it  be,  is  poison.  My  son,  if  poor, 
see  Hyson  in  the  running  spring  ;  see  thy  mouth  water 
at  a  last  week's  roll ;  think  a  threadbare  coat  the  only 
wear ;  and  acknowledge  a  whitewashed  garret  the  fittest 
housing-place  for  a  gentleman ;  do  this,  and  flee  debt. 
So  shall  thy  heart  be  at  rest,  and  the  sheriff  con- 
founded." 

"  Whoever  has  sixpence  is  sovereign  over  all  men  to 
the  extent  of  that  sixpence,"  says  Carlyle  ;  "  commands 
cooks  to  feed  him,  philosophers  to  teach  him,  kings  to 
mount  guard  over  him,  —  to  the  extent  of  that  sixpence." 

If  a  man  owes  you  a  dollar,  he  is  almost  sure  to  owe 
you  a  grudge,  too.  If  you  owe  another  money,  you 
will  be  apt  to  regard  him  with  uncharitable  eyes.  Why 
not  economize  before  getting  into  debt  instead  of  pinch- 
ing afterwards  ? 

Communities  which  live  wholly  from  hand  to  mouth 
never  make  much  progress  in  the  useful  arts.  Savings 
mean  power.  Comfort  and  independence  abide  with 
those  who  can  postpone  thei?^  desires. 


238  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"Hunger,  rags,  cold,  hard  work,  contempt,  suspicion, 
unjust  reproach,  are  disagreeable,"  says  Horace  Gree- 
ley;  "but  debt  is  infinitely  worse  than  them  all." 

Many  a  ruined  man  dates  his  downfall  from  the  day 
when  he  began  borrowing  money.  Debt  demoralized 
Daniel  Webster,  and  Theodore  Hook,  and  Sheridan, 
and  Fox,  and  Pitt.  Mirabeau's  life  was  made  wretched 
by  duns. 

"  Annual  income,"  says  Micawber,  "  twenty  pounds  ; 
annual  expenditure,  nineteen  six,  result  —  happiness. 
Annual  income,  twenty  pounds ;  annual  expenditure, 
twenty  pounds  ought  and  six,  result  —  misery." 

"We  are  ruined,"  says  Colton,  "not  by  what  we 
really  want,  but  by  what  we  think  we  do.  Therefore 
never  go  abroad  in  search  of  your  wants  ;  if  they  be 
real  wants,  they  will  come  home  in  search  of  you ;  for 
he  that  buys  what  he  does  not  want  will  soon  want 
what  he  cannot  buy." 

The  honorable  course  is  to  give  every  man  his  due. 
It  is  better  to  starve  than  not  to  do  this.  It  is  better 
to  do  a  small  business  on  a  cash  basis  than  a  large  one 
on  credit.  Owe  no  man  anything,  wrote  St.  Paul.  It 
is  a  good  motto  to  place  in  every  purse,  in  every  count- 
ing-room, in  every  church,  in  every  home. 

Economy  is  of  itself  a  great  revenue.  —  Cicero. 


RALPH    WALDO    EMERSON 
"The  Sage  of  Concord." 
''■  I  revere  the  person  wlio  is  riches  :  so  I  cannot  think  of  him  as  alone,  or  poor, 
or  exiled,  or  unhappy." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

RICH    WITHOUT    MONEY. 

Let  others  plead  for  pensions;  I  can  be  rich  without  money,  by  endeav- 
oring to  be  superior  to  everything  poor.     I  would  have  my  services  to  my 
country  unstained  by  any  interested  motive.  —  Lord  Collingwood. 
Ill  fares  the  land,  to  hastening  ills  a  prey, 
Where  wealth  accumulates  and  men  decay. 

Pope. 

Pennilessness  is  not  poverty,  and  ownership  is  not  possession;  to  be 
without  is  not  always  to  lack,  and  to  reach  is  not  to  attain  ;  sunlight  is  for 
all  eyes  that  look  up,  and  color  for  those  who  choose.  —  Helen  Hunt. 

I  ought  not  to  allow  an}'  man,  because  he  has  broad  lands,  to  feel  that  he 
is  rich  in  my  presence.  I  ought  to  make  him  feel  that  I  can  do  without 
his  riches,  that  I  cannot  be  bought,  — neither  by  comfort,  neither  by  pride, 
—  and  although  I  be  utterly  penniless,  and  receiving  bread  from  him,  that 
he  is  the  poor  man  beside  me.  — Emerson. 

To  be  content  with  what  we  possess  is  the  greatest  and  most  secure  of 
riches.  —  Cicero. 

There  is  no  riches  above  a  sound  body  and  no  joy  above  the  joy  of  the 
heart.  —  Ecclesiastes. 

"Where,  thy  true  treasure  ?     Gold  says,  "Not  in  me ;  " 
And  "  Not  in  me,"  the  Diamond.     Gold  is  poor ; 
India  's  insolvent:  seek  it  in  thyself. 

Young. 

He  is  richest  who  is  content  with  the  least,  for  content  is  the  wealth  of 
nature.  — Socrates. 

A  great  heart  in  a  little  house  is  of  all  things  here  below  that  which  has 
ever  touched  me  most.  —  Lacordaire. 

My  crown  is  in  my  heart,  not  on  my  head. 
Nor  decked  with  diamonds  and  Lidian  stones, 
Nor  to  be  seen :  my  crown  is  called  content; 
A  crown  it  is,  that  seldom  kings  enjoy. 

Shakespeare. 

Many  a  man  is  rich  without  money.  Thousands  of 
men  with  nothing  in  their  pockets,  and  thousands  with- 
out even  a  pocket,  are  rich. 


240  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE, 

A  man  born  with  a  good,  sound  constitution,  a  good 
stomach,  a  good  heart  and  good  limbs,  and  a  pretty 
good  headpiece,  is  rich. 

Good  bones  are  better  than  gold,  tough  muscles  than 
silver,  and  nerves  that  carry  energy  to  every  function 
are  better  than  houses  and  land. 

"Heart-life,  soul-life,  hope,  joy,  and  love,  are  true 
riches,"  said  Beecher. 

Why  should  I  scramble  and  struggle  to  get  posses- 
sion of  a  little  portion  of  this  earth  ?  This  is  my  world 
now ;  why  should  I  envy  others  its  mere  legal  posses- 
sion ?  It  belongs  to  him  who  can  see  it,  enjoy  it.  I 
need  not  envy  the  so-called  owners  of  estates  in  Boston 
and  New  York.  They  are  merely  taking  care  of  my 
property  and  keeping  it  in  excellent  condition  for  me. 
For  a  few  pennies  for  railroad  fare  whenever  I  wish  I 
can  see  and  possess  the  best  of  it  all.  It  has  cost  me  no 
effort,  it  gives  me  no  care ;  yet  the  green  grass,  the 
shrubbery,  and  the  statues  on  the  lawns,  the  finer 
sculptures  and  the  paintings  within,  are  always  ready 
for  me  whenever  I  feel  a  desire  to  look  upon  them.  I 
do  not  wish  to  carry  them  home  with  me,  for  I  could 
not  give  them  half  the  care  they  now  receive  ;  besides, 
it  would  take  too  much  of  my  valuable  time,  and  I 
should  be  worrying  continually  lest  they  be  spoiled  or 
stolen.  I  have  much  of  the  wealth  of  the  world  now. 
It  is  all  prepared  for  me  without  any  pains  on  my  part. 
All  around  me  are  working  hard  to  get  things  that  will 
please  me,  and  competing  to  see  who  can  give  them  the 
cheapest.  The  little  I  pay  for  the  use  of  libraries,  rail- 
roads, galleries,  parks,  is  less  than  it  would  cost  to  care 
for  the  least  of  all  I  use.  Life  and  landscape  are  mine, 
the  stars  and  flowers,  the  sea  and  air,  the  birds  and 
trees.  What  more  do  I  want  ?  All  the  ages  have  been 
working  for  me ;  all  mankind  are  my  servants.  I  am 
only  required  to  feed  and  clothe  myself,  an  easy  task  in 
this  land  of  opportunity. 


RICH   WITHOUT  MONEY.  241 

A  millionaire  pays  thousands  of  pounds  for  a  gallery  of 
paintings,  and  some  poor  boy  or  girl  comes  in,  with  open 
mind  and  poetic  fancy,  and  carries  away  a  treasure  of 
beauty  which  the  owner  never  saw.  A  collector  bought 
at  public  auction  in  London,  for  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
seven  guineas,  an  autograph  of  Shakespeare  ;  but  for 
nothing  a  schoolboy  can  read  and  absorb  the  riches  of 
"  Hamlet." 

Why  should  I  waste  my  abilities  pursuing  this  will-o'- 
the-wisp  "  Enough,"  which  is  ever  a  little  more  than  one 
has,  and  which  none  of  the  panting  millions  ever  yet 
overtook  in  his  mad  chase  ?  Is  there  no  desirable  thing 
left  in  this  world  but  gold,  luxury,  and  ease  ? 

"  Want  is  a  growing  giant  whom  the  coat  of  Have  was 
never  large  enough  to  cover."  "  A  man  may  as  soon  fill 
a  chest  with  grace,  or  a  vessel  with  virtue,"  says  Phillips 
Brooks,  "  as  a  heart  with  wealth." 

Shall  we  seek  happiness  through  the  sense  of  taste 
or  of  touch  ?  Shall  we  idolize  our  stomachs  and  our 
backs  ?  Have  we  no  higher  missions,  no  nobler  des- 
tinies ?  Shall  we  "  disgrace  the  fair  day  by  a  pusillani- 
mous preference  of  our  bread  to  our  freedom  "  ? 

In  the  three  great  "  Banquets  "  of  Plato,  Xenophon, 
and  Plutarch  the  food  is  not  even  mentioned. 

What  does  your  money  say  to  you  :  what  message  does 
it  bring  to  you  ?  Does  it  say  to  you,  "  Eat,  drink,  and 
be  merry,  for  to-morrow  we  die  "  ?  Does  it  bring  a  mes- 
sage of  comfort,  of  education,  of  culture,  of  travel,  of 
books,  of  an  opportunity  to  help  your  fellow-man,  or  is 
the  message  "More  land,  more  thousands  and  millions"  ? 
What  message  does  it  bring  you  ?  Clothes  for  the 
naked,  bread  for  the  starving,  schools  for  the  ignorant, 
hospitals  for  the  sick,  asylums  for  the  orphans,  or-  of 
more  for  yourself  and  none  for  others  ?  Is  it  a  message 
of  generosity  or  of  meanness,  breadth  or  narrowness  ? 
Does  it  speak  to  you  of  character  ?  Does  it  mean  a 
broader  manhood,  a  larger  aim,  a  nobler  ambition,  or 
does  it  cry  "  More,  more,  more  "  '/ 


242  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Are  you  an  animal  loaded  with  ingots,  or  a  man  filled 
with  a  purpose  ?  He  is  rich  whose  mind  is  rich,  whose 
thought  enriches  the  intellect  of  the  world.  It  is  a  sad 
sight  to  see  a  soul  which  thirsts  not  for  truth  or  beauty 
or  the  good. 

A  sailor  on  a  sinking  vessel  in  the  Caribbean  Sea 
eagerly  filled  his  pockets  with  Spanish  dollars  from  a 
barrel  on  board  while  his  companions,  about  to  leave 
in  the  only  boat,  begged  him  to  seek  safety  with  them. 
But  he  could  not  leave  the  bright  metal  which  he  had 
so  longed  for  and  idolized,  and  was  prevented  from 
reaching  shore  by  his  very  riches,  when  the  vessel  went 
down. 

"  Who  is  the  richest  of  men,"  asked  Socrates  ?  '^  He 
who  is  content  with  the  least,  for  contentment  is  na- 
ture's riches." 

In  More's  ^'Utopia"  gold  was  despised.  Criminals 
were  forced  to  wear  heavy  chains  of  it,  and  to  have 
rings  of  it  in  their  ears ;  it  was  put  to  the  vilest  uses 
to  keep  up  the  scorn  of  it.  Bad  characters  were  com- 
pelled to  wear  gold  head-bands.  Diamonds  and  pearls 
were  used  to  decorate  infants,  so  that  the  youth  would 
discard  and  despise  them. 

"Ah,  if  the  rich  were  as  rich  as  the  poor  fancy 
riches  ! "  exclaims  Emerson. 

Many  a  rich  man  has  died  in  the  poorhouse. 

In  excavating  Pompeii  a  skeleton  was  found  with  the 
fingers  clenched  round  a  quantity  of  gold.  A  man  of 
business  in  the  town  of  Hull,  England,  when  dying, 
pulled  a  bag  of  money  from  under  his  pillow,  which  he 
held  between  his  clenched  fingers  with  a  grasp  so  firm 
as  scarcely  to  relax  under  the  agonies  of  death. 

Oh !  blind  and  wanting  wit  to  choose, 
Who  house  the  chaff  and  burn  the  grain ; 
Who  hug  the  wealth  ye  cannot  use, 
And  lack  the  riches  all  may  gain. 

Wu>i.iAM  Watson. 


RICH   WITHOUT  MONEY.  243 

Povert}^  is  the  want  of  much,  avarice  the  want  of 
everything. 

A  poor  man  was  met  by  a  stranger  while  scoffing  at 
the  wealthy  for  not  enjoying  themselves.  The  stranger 
gave  him  a  purse,  in  which  he  was  always  to  find  a 
ducat.  As  fast  as  he  took  one  out  another  was  to  drop 
in,  but  he  was  not  to  begin  to  spend  his  fortune  until 
he  had  thrown  away  the  purse.  He  takes  ducat  after 
ducat  out,  but  continually  procrastinates  and  puts  off 
the  hour  of  enjoyment  until  he  has  got  "  a  little  more," 
and  dies  at  last  counting  his  millions. 

A  beggar  was  once  met  by  Fortune,  who  promised  to 
fill  his  wallet  with  gold,  as  much  as  he  miglit  please,  on 
condition  that  whatever  touched  the  ground  should  turn 
at  once  to  dust.  The  beggar  opens  his  wallet,  asks  for 
more  and  yet  more,  until  the  bag  bursts.  The  gold  falls 
to  the  ground,  and  all  is  lost. 

When  the  steamer  Central  America  was  about  to 
sink,  the  stewardess,  having  collected  all  the  gold  she 
could  from  the  staterooms,  and  tied  it  in  her  apron, 
jumped  for  the  last  boat  leaving  the  steamer.  She 
missed  her  aim  and  fell  into  the  water,  the  gold  carry- 
ing her  down  head  first. 

In  the  year  1843  a  rich  miser  lived  in  Padua,  who 
was  so  mean  and  sordid  that  he  would  never  give  a  cent 
to  any  person  or  object,  and  he  was  so  afraid  of  the 
banks  that  he  would  not  deposit  with  them,  but  would 
sit  up  nights  with  sword  and  pistol  by  him  to  guard  his 
idol  hoard.  When  his  health  gave  way  from  anxiety 
and  watching  he  built  an  underground  treasure-cham- 
ber, so  arranged  that  if  any  burglar  ever  entered,  he 
would  step  upon  a  spring  which  would  precipitate  him 
into  a  subterranean  river,  where  he  could  neither  escape 
nor  be  heard.  One  night  the  miser  went  to  his  chest 
to  see  that  all  was  right,  when  his  foot  touched  the 
spring  of  the  trap,  and  he  was  hurled  into  the  deep, 
hidden  stream. 


244  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  One  would  think/'  said  Boswell,  "  that  the  proprie- 
tor of  all  this  (Keddlestone,  the  seat  of  Lord  Scarsfield) 
must  be  happy."  "  Nay,  sir,"  said  Johnson,  "  all  this 
excludes  but  one  evil,  poverty." 

John  Duncan,  the  illegitimate  child  of  a  Scottish 
weaver,  was  ignorant,  near-sighted,  bent,  a  miserable 
apology  for  a  human  being,  and  at  last  a  pauper.  If  he 
went  upon  the  street  he  would  sometimes  be  stoned  by 
other  boys.  The  farmer,  for  whom  he  watched  cattle, 
was  cruel  to  him,  and  after  a  rainy  day  would  send  him 
cold  and  wet  to  sleep  on  a  miserable  bed  in  a  dark  out- 
house. Here  he  would  empty  the  water  from  his  shoes, 
and  wring  out  his  wet  clothes  and  sleep  as  best  he 
might.  But  the  boy  had  a  desire  to  learn  to  read,  and 
when,  a  little  later,  he  was  put  to  weaving,  he  ^ev- 
suaded  a  schoolgirl,  twelve  years  old,  to  teach  him.  He 
was  sixteen  when  he  learned  the  alphabet,  after  which 
his  progress  was  quite  rapid.  He  was  very  fond  of 
plants,  and  worked  overtime  for  several  months  to  earn 
five  shillings  to  buy  a  book  on  botany.  He  became  a 
good  botanist,  and  such  was  his  interest  in  the  study 
that  at  the  age  of  eighty  he  walked  twelve  miles  to 
obtain  a  new  specimen.  A  man  whom  he  met  became 
interested  at  finding  such  a  well-stored  mind  in  such  a 
miserable  body,  poorly  clad,  and  published  an  account 
of  his  career.  Many  readers  sent  him  money,  but  he 
saved  it,  and  left  it  in  his  will  to  found  eight  scholar- 
ships and  offer  prizes  for  the  encouragement  of  the 
study  of  natural  science  by  the  poor.  His  small  but 
valuable  library  was  left  for  a  similar  use. 

Franklin  said  money  never  made  a  man  happy  yet ; 
there  is  nothing  in  its  nature  to  produce  happiness.  The 
more  a  man  has,  the  more  he  wants.  Instead  of  filling  a 
vacuum,  it  makes  one.  A  great  bank  account  can  never 
make  a  man  rich.  It  is  the  mind  that  makes  the  body 
rich.  No  man  is  rich,  however  much  money  or  land  he 
may  possess,  who  has  a  poor  heart.    If  that  is  poor,  he  is 


RICH   WITHOUT  MONEY.  245 

poor  indeed,  though  he  own  and  rule  kingdoms.  He  is 
rich  or  poor  according  to  what  he  is,  not  according  to 
what  he  has. 

Who  would  not  choose  to  be"  a  millionaire  of  deeds 
with  a  Lincoln,  a  Grant,  a  Florence  Nightingale,  a 
Childs;  a  millionaire  of  ideas  with  Emerson,  with 
Lowell,  with  Shakespeare,  with  Wordsworth ;  a  million- 
aire of  statesmanship  with  a  Gladstone,  a  Bright,  a 
Sumner,  a  Washington  ? 

Some  men  are  rich  in  health,  in  constant  cheerful- 
ness, in  a  mercurial  temperament  which  floats  them  over 
troubles  and  trials  enough  to  sink  a  shipload  of  ordi- 
nary men.  Others  are  rich  in  disposition,  family,  and 
friends.  There  are  some  men  so  amiable  that  everybody 
loves  them ;  some  so  cheerful  that  they  carry  an  atmos- 
phere of  jollity  about  them.  Some  are  rich  in  integrity 
and  character. 

One  of  the  first  great  lessons  of  life  is  to  learn  the 
true  estimate  of  values.  As  the  youth  starts  out  in  his 
career,  all  sorts  of  wares  will  be  imposed  upon  him,  and 
all  kinds  of  temptations  will  be  used  to  induce  him  to 
buy.  His  success  will  depend  very  largely  upon  his 
ability  to  estimate  properly,  not  the  apparent  but  the 
real  value  of  everything  presented  to  him.  Vulgar 
Wealth  will  flaunt  her  banner  before  his  eyes,  and  claim 
supremacy  over  everything  else.  A  thousand  different 
schemes  will  be  thrust  into  his  face  with  their  claims 
for  superiority.  Every  occupation  and  vocation  will  pre- 
sent its  charms  in  turn,  and  offer  its  inducements.  The 
youth  Avho  would  succeed  must  not  allow  himself  to  be 
deceived  by  appearances,  but  must  place  the  emphasis 
of  life  where  it  belongs. 

No  man,  it  is  said,  can  read  the  works  of  John  Euskin 
without  learning  that  his  sources  of  pleasure  are  well- 
nigh  infinite.  There  is  not  a  flower,  nor  a  cloud,  nor  a 
tree,  nor  a  mountain,  nor  a  star ;  not  a  bird  that  fans 
the   air,   nor   a   creature  that  walks  the   earth;  not  a 


246  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

glimpse  of  sea  or  sky  or  meaclow-greeiiery ;  not  a  work 
of  worthy  art  in  the  domains  of  painting,  sculpture,  poe- 
try, and  architecture ;  not  a  thought  of  God  as  the 
Great  Spirit  presiding  over  and  informing  all  things, 
that  is  not  to  him  a  source  of  the  sweetest  pleasure. 
The  whole  world  of  matter  and  of  spirit  and  the  long 
record  of  human  art  are  open  to  him  as  the  never-fail- 
ing fountains  of  his  delight.  In  these  pure  realms  he 
seeks  his  daily  food  and  has  his  daily  life. 

There  is  now  and  then  a  man  who  sees  beauty  and 
true  riches  everywhere,  and  "  worships  the  splendor  of 
God  which  he  sees  bursting  through  each  chink  and 
cranny." 

Phillips  Brooks,  Thoreau,  Garrison,  Emerson,  Beecher, 
Agassiz,  were  rich  without  money.  They  saw  the 
splendor  in  the  flower,  the  glory  in  the  grass,  books  in 
the  running  brooks,  sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in 
everything.  They  knew  that  the  man  who  owns  the 
landscape  is  seldom  the  one  who  pays  the  taxes  on  it. 
They  sucked  in  power  and  wealth  at  first  hands  from 
the  meadows,  fields,  and  flowers,  birds,  brooks,  moun- 
tains, and  forest,  as  the  bee  sucks  honey  from  the  flow- 
ers. Every  natural  object  seemed  to  bring  them  a  spe- 
cial message  from  the  great  Author  of  the  beautiful.  To 
these  rare  souls  every  natural  object  was  touched  with 
power  and  beauty  ;  and  their  thirsty  souls  drank  it  in 
as  a  traveler  on  a  desert  drinks  in  the  god-sent  water 
of  the  oasis.  To  extract  power  and  real  wealth  from 
men  and  things  seemed  to  be  their  mission,  and  to  pour 
it  out  again  in  refreshing  showers  upon  a  thirsty  hu- 
manity. They  believed  that  man's  most  important  food 
does  not  enter  by  the  mouth.  They  knew  that  man 
could  not  live  by  estates,  dollars,  and  bread  alone,  and 
that  if  he  could  he  would  only  be  an  animal.  They  be- 
lieved that  the  higher  life  demands  a  higher  food. 
They  believed  in  man's  unlimited  power  of  expansion, 
and  that  this  growth  demands  a  more  highly  organized 


RICH   WITHOUT  MONEY.  247 

food  product  than  that  which  merely  sustains  animal 
life.  They  saw  a  finer  nutriment  in  the  landscape,  in 
the  meadows,  than  could  be  ground  into  flour,  and  which 
escaped  the  loaf.  They  felt  a  sentiment  in  natural  ob- 
jects which  pointed  upward,  ever  upward  to  the  Author, 
and  which  was  capable  of  feeding  and  expanding  the 
higher  life  until  it  should  grow  into  a  finer  sympathy 
and  fellowship  with  the  Author  of  the  beautiful.  They 
believed  that  the  Creation  thunders  the  ten  command- 
ments, and  that  all  Nature  is  tugging  at  the  terms  of 
every  contract  to  make  it  just.  They  could  feel  this 
finer  sentiment,  this  soul  lifter,  this  man  inspirer,  in 
the  growing  grain,  in  the  waving  corn,  in  the  golden 
harvest.  They  saw  it  reflected  in  every  brook,  in  every 
star,  in  every  flower,  in  every  dewdrop.  They  believed 
that  Nature  together  with  human  nature  were  man's 
great  schoolmasters  ;  that  if  rightly  used  they  Avould 
carve  his  rough  life  into  beauty  and  touch  his  rude  man- 
ner with  grace. 

"More  servants  wait  on  man  than  he  '11  take  notice 
of."  But  if  he  would  enjoy  Nature  he  must  come  to  it 
from  a  higher  level  than  the  yardstick.  He  must 
bring  a  spirit  as  grand  and  sublime  as  that  by  which 
the  thing  itself  exists. 

We  all  live  on  far  lower  levels  than  we  need  to  do. 
We  linger  in  the  misty  and  oppressive  valleys,  when  we 
might  be  climbing  the  sunlit  hills.  God  puts  into  our 
hands  the  Book  of  Life,  bright  on  every  page  with  open 
secrets,  and  we  suffer  it  to  drop  out  of  our  hands  unread. 
Emerson  says,  "  We  have  come  .into  a  world  which  is  a 
living  poem.  Everything  is  as  I  am."  Nature  provides 
for  us  a  perpetual  festival ;  she  is  bright  to  the  bright, 
comforting  to  those  who  will  accept  comfort.  We  can- 
not conceive  how  a  universe  could  possibly  be  created 
which  could  devise  more  efficient  methods  or  greater 
opportunities  for  the  delight,  the  happiness,  and  the 
real  wealth  of  human  beings  than  the  one  we  live  in. 


248  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

The  human  body  is  packed  full  of  marvelous  devices, 
of  wonderful  contrivances,  of  infinite  possibilities  for 
the  happiness  and  riches  of  the  individual.  No  physi- 
ologist nor  scientist  has  ever  yet  been  able  to  point  out 
a  single  improvement,  even  in  the  minutest  detail,  in 
the  structure  of  the  human  body.  No  inventor  has 
ever  yet  been  able  to  suggest  an  improvement  in  this 
human  mechanism.  No  chemist  has  ever  been  able  to 
suggest  a  superior  combination  in  any  one  of  the  ele- 
ments which  make  up  the  human  structure.  One  of  the 
first  things  to  do  in  life  is  to  learn  the  natural  wealth 
of  our  surroundings,  instead  of  bemoaning  our  lot,  for, 
no  matter  where  we  are  placed,  there  is  infinitely  more 
about  us  than  we  can  ever  understand,  than  we  can  ever 
exhaust  the  meaning  of. 

"  Thank  Heaven  there  are  still  some  Matthew  Arnolds 
who  prefer  the  heavenly  sweetness  of  light  to  the  Eden 
of  riches."  Arnold  left  only  a  few  thousand  dollars, 
but  yet  was  he  not  one  of  the  richest  of  men  ?  What 
the  world  wants  is  young  men  who  will  amass  golden 
thoughts,  golden  wisdom,  golden  deeds,  not  mere  golden 
dollars  ;  young  men  who  prefer  to  have  thought-capital, 
character-capital,  to  cash-capital.  He  who  estimates 
his  money  the  highest  values  himself  the  least.  "  I 
revere  the  person,"  says  Emerson,  "  who  is  riches  ;  so 
that  I  cannot  think  of  him  as  alone,  or  poor,  or  exiled, 
or  unhappy." 

Eaphael  was  rich  without  money.  All  doors  opened 
to  him,  and  he  was  more  than  welcome  everywhere. 
His  sweet  spirit  radiated  sunshine  wherever  he  went. 

Henry  Wilson  was  rich  without  money.  So  scrupu- 
lous had  he  been  not  to  make  his  exalted  position  a 
means  of  worldly  gain,  that  when  this  Natick  cobbler, 
the  sworn  friend  of  the  oppressed,  whose  one  question 
as  to  measures  or  acts  was  ever  "  Is  it  right ;  will  it  do 
good  ? "  came  to  be  inaugurated  as  Vice-President  of 
the  country,  he  was  obliged  to  borrow  of  his  fellow- 


RICH   WITHOUT  MONEY.  249 

senator,  Charles  Sumner,  one  hundred  dollars  to  meet 
the  necessary  expenses  of  the  occasion. 

Mozart,  the  great  composer  of  the  "  Kequiem,"  left 
barely  enough  money  to  bury  him,  but  he  has  made  the 
world  richer. 

A  rich  mind  and  noble  spirit  will  cast  a  radiance  of 
beauty  over  the  humblest  home,  which  the  upholsterer 
and  decorator  can  never  approach.  Who  would  not  pre- 
fer to  be  a  millionaire  of  character,  of  contentment, 
rather  than  possess  nothing  but  the  vulgar  coins  of  a 
Croesus  ?  Whoever  uplifts  civilization  is  rich  though 
he  die  penniless,  and  future  generations  will  erect  his 
monument. 

Are  we  tender,  loving,  self-denying,  and  honest,  trying 
to  fashion  our  frail  life  after  that  of  the  model  man  of 
Nazareth  ?  Then,  though  our  pockets  are  often  empty, 
we  have  an  inheritance  which  is  as  overwhelmingly  pre- 
cious as  it  is  eternally  incorruptible. 

An  Asiatic  traveler  tells  us  that  one  day  he  found 
the  bodies  of  two  men  laid  upon  the  desert  sand  beside 
the  carcass  of  a  camel.  They  had  evidently  died  from 
thirst,  and  yet  around  the  waist  of  each  was  a  large 
store  of  jewels  of  different  kinds,  which  they  had  doubt- 
less been  crossing  the  desert  to  sell  in  the  markets  of 
Persia. 

The  man  who  has  no  money  is  poor,  but  one  who  has 
nothing  but  money  is  poorer  than  he.  He  only  is  rich 
who  can  enjoy  without  owning ;  he  who  is  covetous  is 
poor  though  he  have  millions.  There  are  riches  of  in- 
tellect, and  no  man  with  an  intellectual  taste  can  be 
called  poor.  He  who  has  so  little  knowledge  of  human 
nature  as  to  seek  happiness  by  changing  anything  but 
his  own  disposition  will  waste  his  life  in  fruitless 
efforts,  and  multiply  the  griefs  which  he  purposes  to 
remove.  He  is  rich  as  well  as  brave  who  can  face  pov- 
erty and  misfortune  with  cheerfulness  and  courage. 

We  can  so  educate  the  will  power  that  it  will  focus 


250  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  thoughts  upon  the  bright  side  of  things,  and  upon 
objects  which  elevate  the  soul,  thus  forming  a  habit  of 
hapj)iness  and  goodness  which  will  make  us  rich.  The 
habit  of  making  the  best  of  everything  and  of  always 
looking  on  the  bright  side  of  everything  is  a  fortune  in 
itself. 

He  is  rich  who  values  a  good  name  above  gold. 
Among  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Eomans  honor  was 
more  sought  after  than  wealth.  Eome  was  imperial 
Rome  no  more  when  the  imperial  purple  became  an 
article  of  traffic. 

This  is  the  evil  of  trade,  as  well  as  of  partisan  poli- 
tics. As  Emerson  remarks,  it  would  put  everything 
into  market, — talent,  beauty,  virtue,  and  man  himself. 

Diogenes  was  captured  by  pirates  and  sold  as  a  slave. 
His  purchaser  released  him,  and  gave  him  charge  of  his 
household  and  of  the  education  of  his  children.  He 
despised  wealth  and  affectation,  and  lived  in  a  tub. 
"  Do  you  want  anything  ?  "  asked  Alexander  the  Great, 
forcibly  impressed  by  the  abounding  cheerfulness  of  the 
philosopher  under  such  circumstances.  "Yes,"  replied 
Diogenes,  "  I  want  you  to  stand  out  of  my  sunshine  and 
not  to  take  from  me  what  you  cannot  give  me."  "  Were 
I  not  Alexander,"  exclaimed  the  great  conqueror,  "I 
would  be  Diogenes." 

Brave  and  honest  men  do  not  work  for  gold.  They 
work  for  love,  for  honor,  for  character.  When  Socrates 
suffered  death  rather  than  abandon  his  views  of  right 
morality,  when  Las  Casas  endeavored  to  mitigate  the 
tortures  of  the  poor  Indians,  they  had  no  thought  of 
money  or  country.  They  worked  for  the  elevation  of 
all  that  thought,  and  for  the  relief  of  all  that  suffered. 

"I  don't  want  such  things,"  said  Epictetus  to  the 
rich  Roman  orator  who  was  making  light  of  his  con- 
tempt for  money-wealth;  "and  besides,"  said  the  stoic, 
"you  are  poorer  than  I  am,  after  all.  You  have  silver 
vessels,  but  earthenware  reasons,  principles,  appetites. 


RICH    WITHOUT  MONEY.  251 

My  mind  to  me  a  kingdom  is,  and  it  furnishes  me  with 
abundant  and  happy  occupation  in  lieu  of  your  restless 
idleness.  All  your  possessions  seem  small  to  you ;  mine 
seem  great  to  me.  Your  desire  is  insatiate,  mine  is 
satisfied." 

"  Do  you  know,  sir,"  said  a  devotee  of  Mammon  to 
John  Bright,  "  that  I  am  worth  a  million  sterling  ?  " 
"  Yes,"  said  the  irritated  but  calm-spirited  respondent, 
"I  do ;  and  I  know  that  it  is  all  you  are  worth." 

A  bankrupt  merchant,  returning  home  one  night,  said 
to  his  noble  wife,  "  My  dear,  I  am  ruined  ;  everything 
we  have  is  in  the  hands  of  the  sheriff."  After  a  few 
moments  of  silence  the  wife  looked  into  his  face  and 
asked,  "  Will  the  sheriff  sell  you  ?  "  ''  Oh,  no."  "  Will 
the  sheriff  sell  me  ?  "  "  Oh,  no."  "  Then  do  not  say 
v/e  have  lost  everything.  All  that  is  most  valuable  re- 
mains to  us,  —  manhood,  womanhood,  childhood.  We 
have  lost  but  the  results  of  our  skill  and  industry.  We 
can  make  another  fortune  if  our  hearts  and  hands  are 
left  us." 

What  power  can  poverty  have  over  a  home  where 
loving  hearts  are  beating  with  a  consciousness  of  untold 
riches  of  head  and  heart  ? 

Paul  was  never  so  great  as  when  he  occupied  a  prison 
cell ;  and  Jesus  Christ  reached  the  height  of  his  success 
when,  smitten,  spat  upon,  tormented,  and  crucified,  He 
cried  in  agonj^,  and  yet  with  triumphant  satisfaction, 
"  It  is  finished." 

"  Character  before  wealth,"  was  the  motto  of  Amos 
Lawrence,  who  had  inscribed-  on  his  pocket-book, 
"  What  shall  it  profit  a  man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  " 

If  you  make  a  fortune  let  every  dollar  of  it  be  clean. 
You  do  not  want  to  see  in  it  drunkards  reel,  orphans 
weep,  widows  moan.  Your  riches  must  not  make  others 
poorer  and  more  wretched. 

Alexander  the  Great  wandered  to  the  gates  of  Parar 


252  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

dise,  and  knocked  for  entrance.  "  Who  knocks  ?  "  de- 
manded the  guardian  angel.  "  Alexander.'^  "  Who  is 
Alexander  ?  "  "  Alexander,  —  the  Alexander,  —  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  — the  conqueror  of  the  world."  "We 
know  him  not,"  replied  the  angel ;  "  this  is  the  Lord's 
gate ;  only  the  righteous  enter  here." 

Don't  start  out  in  life  with  a  false  standard  ;  a  truly 
great  man  makes  official  position  and  money  and  houses 
and  estates  look  so  tawdry,  so  mean  and  poor,  that  we 
feel  like  sinking  out  of  sight  with  our  cheap  laurels  and 
gold.     Millions  look  triflinfj  beside  character. 

A  friend  of  Professor  Agassiz,  an  eminent  practical 
man,  once  expressed  his  wonder  that  a  man  of  such 
abilities  should  remain  contented  with  such  a  moderate 
income  as  he  received.  "  I  have  enough,"  was  Agassiz's 
reply.  "  I  have  no  time  to  waste  in  making  money. 
Life  is  not  sufficiently  long  to  enable  a  man  to  get 
rich  and  do  his  duty  to  his  fellow -men  at  the  same 
time." 

How  were  the  thousands  of  business  men  who  lost 
every  dollar  they  had  in  the  Chicago  fire  enabled  to 
go  into  business  at  once,  some  into  wholesale  business, 
without  money  ?  Their  record  was  their  bank  account. 
The  commercial  agencies  said  they  were  square  men  ; 
that  they  had  always  paid  one  hundred  cents  on  a  dol- 
lar ;  that  they  had  paid  promptly,  and  that  they  were 
industrious  and  dealt  honorably  with  all  men.  This 
record  was  as  good  as  a  bank  account.  They  drew  on 
their  character.  Character  was  the  coin  which  enabled 
penniless  men  to  buy  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of 
goods.  Their  integrity  did  not  burn  up  with  their 
stores.  The  best  part  of  them  was  beyond  the  reach  of 
fire  and  could  not  be  burned. 

What  are  the  toil-sweated  productions  of  wealth  piled 
up  in  vast  profusion  around  a  Girard,  or  a  Eothschild, 
when  weighed  against  the  stores  of  wisdom,  the  trea- 
sures of  knowledge,  and  the  strength,  beauty,  and  glory 


RICH  WITHOUT  MONEY.  253 

with  which  victorious  virtue  has  enriched  and  adorned 
a  great  multitude  of  minds  during  the  march  of  a  hun- 
dred generations  ? 

"  Lord,  how  many  things  are  in  the  world  of  which 
Diogenes  hath  no  need ! "  exclaimed  the  stoic,  as  he 
wandered  among  the  miscellaneous  articles  at  a  country 
fair. 

"  There  are  treasures  laid  up  in  the  heart  —  treasures 
of  charity,  piety,  temperance,  and  soberness.  These 
treasures  a  man  takes  with  him  beyond  death  when 
he  leaves  this  world."     (Buddhist  Scriptures.) 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  our  children  start  out  with 
wrong  ideals  of  life,  with  wrong  ideas  of  what  consti- 
tutes success  ?  The  child  is  "  urged  to  get  on,"  to  "  rise 
in  the  world,"  to  "  make  money."  The  youth  is  con- 
stantly told  that  nothing  succeeds  like  success.  False 
standards  are  everywhere  set  up  for  him,  and  then  the 
boy  is  blamed  if  he  makes  a  failure. 

It  is  all  very  well  to  urge  youth  on  to  success,  but 
the  great  mass  of  mankind  can  never  reach  or  even  ap- 
proximate the  goal  constantly  preached  to  them,  nor 
can  we  all  be  rich.  One  of  the  great  lessons  to  teach  in 
this  century  of  sharp  competition  and  the  survival  of 
the  fittest  is  how  to  be  rich  without  money,  and  to 
learn  how  to  do  without  success,  according  to  the  popu- 
lar standard. 

Gold  cannot  make  the  miser  rich,  nor  can  the  want 
of  it  make  the  beggar  poor. 

In  the  poem,  "  The  Changed  Cross,"  a  weary  woman 
is  represented  as  dreaming  that  .she  was  led  to  a  place 
where  many  crosses  lay,  crosses  of  divers  shapes  and 
sizes.  The  most  beautiful  one  was  set  in  jewels  of 
gold.  It  was  so  tiny  and  exquisite  that  she  changed 
her  own  plain  cross  for  it,  thinking  she  was  fortunate 
in  finding  one  so  much  lighter  and  lovelier.  But  soon 
her  back  began  to  ache  under  the  glittering  burden,  and 
she  changed  it  for  another  cross  very  beautiful  and  en- 


254  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

twined  with  flowers.  But  she  soon  found  that  under- 
neath the  flowers  were  piercing  thorns  which  tore  her 
flesh.  At  last  she  came  to  a  very  plain  cross  without 
jewels,  without  carving,  and  with  only  the  word, 
''  Love,"  inscribed  upon  it.  She  took  this  one  up  and  it 
proved  the  easiest  and  best  of  all.  She  was  amazed, 
however,  to  find  that  it  was  her  old  cross  which  she  had 
discarded.  It  is  easy  to  see  the  jewels  and  the  flowers 
in  other  people's  crosses,  but  the  thorns  and  heavy 
weight  are  known  only  to  the  bearers.  How  easy 
other  people's  burdens  seem  to  us  compared  with  our 
own.  We  do  not  appreciate  the  secret  burdens  which 
almost  crush  the  heart,  nor  the  years  of  weary  wait- 
ing for  delayed  success  —  the  aching  hearts  longing  for 
sympathy,  the  hidden  poverty,  the  suppressed  emotion 
in  other  lives. 

William  Pitt,  the  great  Commoner,  considered  money 
as  dirt  beneath  his  feet  compared  with  the  public  in- 
terest and  public  esteem.     His  hands  were  clean. 

The  object  for  which  we  strive  tells  the  story  of  our 
lives.  Men  and  women  should  be  judged  by  the  happi- 
ness they  create  in  those  around  them.  ISToble  deeds 
always  enrich,  but  millions  of  mere  money  may  impov- 
erish. Character  is  perpetual  wealth,  and  by  the  side 
of  him  who  possesses  it  the  millionaire  who  has  it  not 
seems  a  pauper.  Compared  with  it,  what  are  houses 
and  lands,  stocks  and  bonds  ?  ''  It  is  better  that  great 
souls  should  live  in  small  habitations  than  that  abject 
slaves  should  burrow  in  great  houses.-'  Plain  living, 
rich  thought,  and  grand  effort  are  real  riches. 

Invest  in  yourself,  and  you  will  never  be  poor. 
Ploods  cannot  carry  your  wealth  away,  fire  cannot  burn 
it,  rust  cannot  consume  it. 

"If  a  man  empties  his  purse  into  his  head,"  says 
Franklin,  "  no  man  can  take  it  from  him.  An  invest- 
ment in  knowledge  always  pays  the  best  interest." 

"There  is  a  cunning   juggle  in  riches.     I  observe," 


RICH   WITHOUT  MONEY.  255 

says  Emerson,  "  that  they  take  somewhat  for  every- 
thing they  give.  I  look  bigger,  but  I  am  less ;  I  have 
more  clothes,  but  am  not  so  warm  ;  more  armor,  but  less 
courage  ;  more  books,  but  less  wit." 

Howe'er  it  be,  it  seems  to  me, 
'Tis  only  noble  to  be  good. 
Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets, 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood. 

Tennyson. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

OPPORTUNITIES    WHERE    YOU    ARE. 

To  each  man's  life  there  comes  a  time  supreme; 

One  day,  one  night,  one  morning,  or  one  noon, 
One  freighted  hour,  one  moment  opportune, 
One  rift  through  which  sublime  fulfillments  gleam, 
One  space  when  fate  goes  tiding  with  the  stream. 

One  Once,  in  balance  'twixt  Too  Late,  Too  Soon, 
And  ready  for  the  passing  instant's  boon 
To  tip  in  favor  the  uncertain  beam. 
Ah,  happy  he  who,  knowing  how  to  wait. 

Knows  also  how  to  watch  and  work  and  stand 
On  Life's  broad  deck  alert,  and  at  the  prow 
To  seize  the  passing  moment,  big  with  fate,  "^ 

From  opportunity's  extended  hand, 
When  the  great  clock  of  destiny  strikes  Now ! 

Mary  A.  Townsend. 
Once  to  every  man  and  nation  comes  the  moment  to  decide. 
In  the  strife  of  Truth  with  Falsehood,  for  the  good  or  evil  side. 

Lowell. 
What  is  opportunity  to  a  man  who  can't  use  it  ?    An  unfecundated  egg, 
which  the  waves  of  time  wash  away  into  nonentity.  —  George  Eliot. 
A  thousand  years  a  poor  man  watched 

Before  the  gate  of  Paradise : 
But  while  one  little  nap  he  snatched, 
It  oped  and  shut.     Ah  !  was  he  wise  ? 

W.  R.  Alger. 

Our  grand  business  is,  not  to  see  what  lies  dimly  at  a  distance,  but  to 
do  what  lies  clearly  at  hand.  —  Carlyle. 

A  man's  best  things  are  nearest  him. 
Lie  close  about  his  feet. 

R.  M.  Milnes. 
The  secret  of  success  in  life  is  for  a  man  to  be  ready /or  his  opportii- 
nity  when  it  comes.  —  Disraeli. 

"  There  are  no  longer  any  good  chances  for  young 
men,"   complained   a  law   student  to  Daniel  Webster. 


THOMAS    JEFFERSOM, 
■'The  workl  is  all  gates,  all  opportunities  to  liini  who  can  use  them." 

"  'T  is  never  offered  twice,  seize  then  the  hour 
When  fortune  smiles  and  dutj-  points  the  way." 


OPPORTUNITIES   WHERE   YOU  ARE.       257 

"There  is  always  room  at  the  top/'  replied  the  great 
lawyer. 

No  chance,  no  opportunities,  in  a  land  where  many 
poor  boys  become  rich  men,  where  newsboys  go  to  Con- 
gress, and  where  those  born  in  the  lowest  stations  at- 
tain the  highest  positions  ?  The  world  is  all  gates,  all 
opportunities  to  him  who  will  use  them.  But,  like 
Bunyan's  Pilgrim  in  the  dungeon  of  Giant  Despair's 
castle,  who  had  the  key  of  deliverance  all  the  time  with 
him  but  had  forgotten  it,  we  fail  to  rely  wholly  upon 
the  ability  to  advance  all  that  is  good  for  us  which  has 
been  given  to  the  weakest  as  well  as  the  strongest. 
We  depend  too  much  upon  outside  assistance. 

"  We  look  too  high 
For  things  close  by." 

A  Baltimore  lady  lost  a  valuable  diamond  bracelet  at 
a  ball,  and  supposed  that  it  was  stolen  from  the  pocket 
of  her  cloak.  Years  afterward  she  washed  the  steps  of 
the  Peabody  Institute,  pondering  how  to  get  money  to 
buy  food.  She  cut  up  an  old,  worn-out,  ragged  cloak  to 
make  a  hood,  when  lo  !  in  the  lining  of  the  cloak  she 
discovered  the  diamond  bracelet.  During  all  her  pov- 
erty she  was  worth  $3500,  but  did  not  knoAV  it. 

Many  of  us  who  think  we  are  poor  are  rich  in  oppor- 
tunities, if  we  could  only  see  them,  in  possibilities  all 
about  us,  in  faculties  worth  more  than  diamond  brace- 
lets. In  our  large  Eastern  cities  it  has  been  found  that 
at  least  ninety-four  out  of  every  hundred  found  their 
first  fortune  at  home,  or  near  at  hand,  and  in  meeting 
common  every-day  wants.  It  is  a  sorry  day  for  a 
young  man  who  cannot  see  any  opportunities  where  he 
is,  but  thinks  he  can  do  better  somewhere  else.  Some 
Brazilian  shepherds  organized  a  party  to  go  to  California 
to  dig  gold,  and  took  along  a  handful  of  translucent 
pebbles  to  play  checkers  with  on  the  voyage.  After 
arriving  in  San  Francisco,  and  after  they  had  thrown 
most  of  the  pebbles  away,  they  discovered  that  they 


258  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

were  diamonds.  They  hastened  back  to  Brazil,  only  to 
find  that  the  mines  from  which  the  pebbles  had  been 
gathered  had  been  taken  up  by  others  and  sold  to  the 
government. 

The  richest  gold  and  silver  mine  in  Nevada  was  sold 
for  $42  by  the  owner  to  get  money  to  pay  his  passage 
to  other  mines,  where  he  thought  he  could  get  rich. 
Professor  Agassiz  told  the  Harvard  students  of  a 
farmer  who  owned  a  farm  of  hundreds  of  acres  of  un- 
profitable woods  and  rocks,  and  concluded  to  sell  out 
and  get  into  a  more  profitable  business.  He  decided  to 
go  into  the  coal-oil  business  ;  he  studied  coal  measures 
and  coal-oil  deposits,  and  experimented  for  a  long  time. 
He  sold  his  farm  for  $200,  and  engaged  in  his  new  busi- 
ness two  hundred  miles  away.  Only  a  short  time  after 
the  man  who  bought  his  farm  discovered  upon  it  a 
great  flood  of  coal-oil,  which  the  farmer  had  previously 
ignorantly  tried  to  drain  off. 

Hundreds  of  years  ago  there  lived  near  the  shore  of 
the  river  Indus  a  Persian  by  the  name  of  Ali  Hafed. 
He  lived  in  a  cottage  on  the  river  bank,  from  which  he 
could  get  a  grand  view  of  the  beautiful  country  stretch- 
ing away  to  the  sea.  He  had  a  wife  and  children  ;  an 
extensive  farm,  fields  of  grain,  gardens  of  flowers,  or- 
chards of  fruit,  and  miles  of  forest.  He  had  a  plenty 
of  money  and  everything  that  heart  could  wish.  He 
was  contented  and  happy.  One  evening  a  priest  of 
Buddha  visited  him,  and,  sitting  before  the  fire,  ex- 
plained to  him  how  the  world  was  made,  and  how  the 
first  beams  of  sunlight  condensed  on  the  earth's  surface 
into  diamonds.  The  old  priest  told  that  a  drop  of  sun- 
light the  size  of  his  thumb  was  worth  more  than  large 
mines  of  copper,  silver,  or  gold ;  that  with  one  of  them 
he  could  buy  many  farms  like  his  ;  that  with  a  handful 
he  could  buy  a  province,  and  with  a  mine  of  diamonds 
he  could  purchase  a  kingdom.  Ali  Hafed  listened,  and 
was  no  longer  a  rich  man.     He  had  been  touched  with 


OPPORTUNITIES   WHERE   YOU  ARE.       259 

discontent,  and  with  that  all  wealth  vanishes.  Early 
the  next  morning  he  woke  the  priest  who  had  been  the 
cause  of  his  unhappiness,  and  anxiously  asked  him 
where  he  could  find  a  mine  of  diamonds.  "What  do 
you  want  of  diamonds  ?  "  asked  the  astonished  priest. 
"  I  want  to  be  rich  and  place  my  children  on  thrones.'' 
"  All  you  have  to  do  is  to  go  and  search  until  you  find 
them,"  said  the  priest.  "  But  where  shall  I  go  ? " 
asked  the  poor  farmer.  "  Go  anywhere,  north,  south, 
east,  or  west.''  "  How  shall  I  know  when  I  have  found 
the  place  ?  "  "  When  you  find  a  river  running  over 
white  sands  between  high  mountain  ranges,  in  those 
white  sands  you  will  find  diamonds,"  answered  the 
priest. 

The  discontented  man  sold  the  farm  for  what  he  could 
get,  left  his  family  with  a  neighbor,  took  the  money  he 
had  at  interest,  and  went  to  search  for  the  coveted 
treasure.  Over  the  mountains  of  Arabia,  through  Pal- 
estine and  Egypt,  he  wandered  for  years,  but  found  no 
diamonds.  When  his  money  was  all  gone  and  starva- 
tion stared  him  in  the  face,  ashamed  of  his  folly  and  of 
his  rags,  poor  Ali  Hafed  threw  himself  into  the  tide 
and  was  drowned.  The  man  who  bought  his  farm  was 
a  contented  man,  who  made  the  most  of  his  surround- 
ings, and  did  not  believe  in  going  away  from  home  to 
hunt  for  diamonds  or  success.  While  his  camel  was 
drinking  in  the  garden  one  day,  he  noticed  a  flash  of 
light  from  the  white  sands  of  the  brook.  He  picked 
up  a  pebble,  and  pleased  with  its  brilliant  hues  took  it 
into  the  house,  put  it  on  the  shelf  near  the  fireplace,  and 
forgot  all  about  it.  The  old  priest  "of  Buddha  who  had 
filled  Ali  Hafed  with  the  fatal  discontent  called  one 
day  upon  the  new  owner  of  the  farm.  He  had  no 
sooner  entered  the  room  than  his  eye  caught  that  flash 
of  light  from  the  stone.  "Here  's  a  diamond !  here  's  a 
diamond ! "  the  old  priest  shouted  in  great  excitement. 
"  Has  Ali  Hafed  returned  ?  "  said  the  priest.     "  No," 


260  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

said  the  farmer,  "  nor  is  that  a  diamond.  That  is  but  a 
stone."  They  went  into  the  garden  and  stirred  up 
the  white  sand  with  their  fingers,  and  behold,  other 
diamonds  more  beautiful  than  the  first  gleamed  out  of 
it.  So  the  famous  diamond  beds  of  Golconda  were  dis- 
covered. Had  Ali  Hafed  been  content  to  remain  at 
home,  had  he  dug  in  his  own  garden,  instead  of  going 
abroad  in  search  for  wealth,  and  reaping  poverty,  hard- 
ships, starvation,  and  death,  he  would  have  been  one 
of  the  richest  men  in  the  world,  for  the  entire  farm 
abounded  in  the  richest  of  gems. 

You  have  your  own  special  place  and  work.  Find  it, 
fill  it.  Scarcely  a  boy  or  girl  will  read  these  lines  but 
has  much  better  opportunity  to  win  success  than  Gar- 
field, Wilson,  Franklin,  Lincoln,  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe, 
Frances  Willard,  and  thousands  of  others.  But  to  suc- 
ceed you  must  be  prepared  to  seize  and  improve  the  op- 
portunity when  it  comes.  Eemember  that  four  things 
come  not  back :  the  spoken  word,  the  sped  arrow,  the 
past  life,  and  the  neglected  opportunity. 

It  is  one  of  the  paradoxes  of  civilization  that  the 
more  opportunities  are  utilized,  the  more  new  ones  are 
thereby  created.  JSTew  openings  are  as  easy  to  fill  as 
ever  to  those  who  do  their  best ;  although  it  is  not  so 
easy  as  formerly  to  obtain  distinction  in  the  old  lines, 
because  the  standard  has  advanced  so  much  and  compe- 
tition has  so  greatly  increased.  "  The  world  is  no 
longer  clay,"  said  Emerson,  "but  rather  iron  in  the 
hands  of  its  workers,  and  men  have  got  to  hammer  out 
a  place  for  themselves  by  steady  and  rugged  blows." 

Thousands  of  men  have  made  fortunes  out  of  trifles 
which  others  pass  by.  As  the  bee  gets  honey  from  the 
same  flower  from  which  the  spider  gets  poison,  so  some 
men  will  get  a  fortune  out  of  the  commonest  and  mean- 
est things,  as  scraps  of  leather,  cotton  waste,  slag,  iron 
filings,  from  which  others  get  only  poverty  and  failure. 
There  is  scarcely  a  thing  which  contributes  to  the  wel- 


OPPORTUNITIES    WHERE   YOU  ARE.       261 

fare  and  comfort  of  humanity,  not  an  article  of  house- 
hold furniture,  a  kitchen  utensil,  an  article  of  clothing 
or  of  food,  that  is  not  capable  of  an  improvement  in 
which  there  may  be  a  fortune. 

Opportunities  ?  They  are  all  around  us.  Edison  found 
them  in  a  baggage  car.  Forces  of  nature  plead  to  be 
used  in  the  service  of  man,  as  lightning  for  ages  tried 
to  attract  his  attention  to  the  great  force  of  electricity, 
which  would  do  his  drudgery  and  leave  him  to  develop 
the  God-given  powers  within  him.  There  is  power 
lying  latent  everywhere  waiting  for  the  observant  eye 
to  discover  it. 

First  find  out  what  the  world  needs  and  then  supply 
that  want.  An  invention  to  make  smoke  go  the  wrong 
way  in  a  chimney  might  be  a  very  ingenious  thing,  but 
it  would  be  of  no  use  to  humanity.  The  patent  office  at 
Washington  is  full  of  wonderful  devices  of  ingenious 
mechanism,  but  not  one  in  hundreds  is  of  use  to  the 
inventor  or  to  the  world.  And  yet  how  many  families 
have  been  impoverished,  and  have  struggled  for  years 
amid  want  and  woe,  while  the  father  has  been. working  on 
useless  inventions.  A.  T.  Stewart,  as  a  boy,  lost  eighty- 
seven  cents  when  his  capital  was  one  dollar  and  a  half 
in  buying  buttons  and  thread  which  shoppers  did  not 
call  for.  After  that  he  made  it  a  rule  never  to  buy  any- 
thing which  the  public  did  not  want,  and  so  prospered. 

It  is  estimated  that  five  out  of  every  seven  of  the 
millionaire  manufacturers  began  by  making  with  their 
own  hands  the  articles  which  made  their  fortunes.  One 
of  the  greatest  hindrances  to  advancement  in  life  is  the 
lack  of  observation  and  of  the  inclination  to  take  pains. 
An  observing  man,  the  eyelets  of  whose  shoes  pulled  out, 
but  who  could  not  afford  to  get  another  pair,  said  to 
himself,  "I  will  make  a  metallic  lacing  hook,  which 
can  be  riveted  into  the  leather ;  "  he  was  so  poor  that  he 
had  to  borrow  a  sickle  to  cut  the  grass  in  front  of  his 
hired  tenement.     Now  he  is  a  very  rich  man. 


262  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

All  observing  barber  in  Newark,  N.  J.,  thought  he 
could  make  an  improvement  in  shears  for  cutting  hair, 
invented  clippers,  and  became  rich.  A  Maine  man  was 
called  in  from  the  hayfield  to  wash  clothes  for  his  in- 
valid wife.  He  had  never  realized  what  it  was  to  wash 
before.  Finding  the  method  slow  and  laborious,  he  in- 
vented the  washing-machine,  and  made  a  fortune.  A 
man  who  was  suffering  terribly  with  toothache  said  to 
himself,  there  must  be  some  way  of  filling  teeth  which 
will  prevent  their  aching.  So  he  invented  the  prin- 
ciple of  gold  filling  for  teeth. 

The  great  things  of  the  world  have  not  been  done  by 
men  of  large  means.  Ericsson  began  the  construction 
of  the  screw  propellers  in  a  bathroom.  The  cotton-gin 
was  first  manufactured  in  a  log  cabin.  John  Harrison, 
the  great  inventor  of  the  marine  chronometer,  began  his 
career  in  the  loft  of  an  old  barn.  Parts  of  the  first 
steamboat  ever  run  in  America  were  set  up  in  the  vestry 
of  a  church  in  Philadelphia  by  Fitch.  McCormick  be- 
gan to  make  his  famous  reaper  in  a  gristmill.  The 
first  model  dry  dock  was  made  in  an  attic.  Clark,  the 
founder  of  Clark  University  of  Worcester,  Mass.,  began 
his  great  fortune  by  making  toy  wagons  in  a  horse  shed. 
Farquhar  made  umbrellas  in  his  sitting-room,  with  his 
daughter's  help,  until  he  sold  enough  to  hire  a  loft. 
Edison  began  his  experiments  in  a  baggage  car  on  the 
Grand  Trunk  Railroad  when  a  newsboy. 

As  soon  as  the  weather  would  permit,  the  Jamestown 
colonists  began  to  stroll  about  the  country  digging  for 
gold.  In  a  bank  of  sand  some  glittering  particles  were 
found,  and  the  whole  settlement  was  in  a  state  of  excite- 
ment. Fourteen  weeks  of  the  precious  springtime, 
which  ought  to  have  been  given  to  plowing  and  plant- 
ing, were  consumed  in  this  stupid  nonsense.  Even  the 
Indians  ridiculed  the  madness  of  the  men  who,  for  im- 
aginary grains  of  gold,  were  wasting  their  chances  for  a 
crop  of  corn. 


OPPORTUNITIES    WHERE   YOU  ARE.       263 

Michael  Angelo  found  a  piece  of  discarded  Carrara 
marble  among  waste  rubbish,  beside  a  street  in  Florence, 
which  some  unskillful  workman  had  cut,  hacked,  spoiled, 
and  thrown  away.  No  doubt  many  artists  had  noticed 
the  fine  quality  of  the  marble,  and  regretted  that  it 
should  have  been  spoiled.  But  Michael  Angelo  still 
saw  an  angel  in  the  ruin,  and  with  his  chisel  and  mallet 
he  called  out  from  it  one  of  the  finest  pieces  of  statuary  in 
Italy,  the  young  David. 

The  lonely  island  of  Nantucket  would  not  be  consid- 
ered a  very  favorable  place  to  win  success  and  fame. 
But  Maria  Mitchell,  on  seventy-five  dollars  a  year,  as 
librarian  of  the  Nantucket  Athenaeum,  found  time  and 
opportunity  to  become  a  celebrated  astronomer.  Lucre- 
tia  Mott,  one  of  America's  foremost  philanthropists  and 
reformers,  who  made  herself  felt  over  a  whole  continent, 
gained  much  of  her  reputation  as  a  preacher  on  Nan- 
tucket Island. 

ii  Why  does  not  America  have  fine  sculptors  ?  "  asked 
a  romping  girl,  of  Watertown,  Mass.,  in  1842.  Her 
father,  a  physician,  answered  that  he  supposed  "  an  Amer- 
ican could  be  a  stone-cutter,  but  that  is  a  very  different 
thing  from  being  a  sculptor."  "  I  think,"  said  the 
plucky  maiden,  "  that  if  no  other  American  tries  it  I 
will."  She  began  her  studies  in  Boston,  and  walked 
seven  miles  to  and  fro  daily  between  her  home  and 
the  city.  The  medical  schools  in  Boston  would  not  ad- 
mit her  to  study  anatomy,  so  she  had  to  go  to  St.  Louis. 
Subsequently  she  went  to  Eome,  and  there,  during  a 
long  residence,  and  afterward,  modeled  and  carved  very 
beautiful  statuary  which  made  the  name  of  Harriet  G. 
Hosmer  famous.  Begin  where  you  are  ;  work  where 
you  are  ;  the  hour  which  you  are  now  wasting,  dreaming 
of  some  far-off  success,  may  be  crowded  with  grand  pos- 
sibilities. 

Patrick  Henry  was  called  a  lazy  boy,  a  good-for-no- 
thing  farmer,  and  he  failed  as  a  merchant.     He  was 


264  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

always  dreaming  of  some  far-off  greatness,  and  never 
thoiiglit  he  could  be  a  hero  among  the  corn  and  tobacco 
and  saddlebags  of  Virginia.  He  studied  law  six  weeks, 
when  he  put  out  his  shingle.  Peojjle  thought  he  would 
fail,  but  in  his  first  case  he  showed  that  he  had  a  won- 
derful power  of  oratory.  It  then  first  dawned  upon 
him  that  he  could  be  a  hero  in  Virginia.  From  the  time 
the  Stamp  Act  was  passed  and  Henry  was  elected  to  the 
Virginia  House  of  Burgesses,  and  he  had  introduced  his 
famous  resolution  against  the  unjust  taxation  of  the 
American  colonies,  he  rose  steadily  until  he  became  one 
of  the  brilliant  orators  of  America.  In  one  of  his  first 
speeches  upon  this  resolution  he  uttered  these  words, 
which  were  prophetic  of  his  power  and  courage  :  "  Cae- 
sar had  his  Brutus,  Charles  the  First  his  Cromwell,  and 
George  the  Third  —  may  profit  by  their  example.  If 
this  be  treason,  make  the  most  of  it." 

The  great  natural  philosopher,  Faraday,  who  was  the 
son  of  a  blacksmith,  wrote,  when  a  young  man,  to 
Humphry  Davy,  asking  for  employment  at  the  Koyal 
Institution.  Davy  consulted  a  friend  on  the  matter. 
"  Here  is  a  letter  from  a  young  man  named  Faraday ; 
he  has  been  attending  my  lectures,  and  wants  me  to 
give  him  employment  at  the  Royal  Institution  —  what 
can  I  do  ?  "  "  Do  ?  put  him  to  washing  bottles  ;  if  he 
is  good  for  anything  he  will  do  it  directly ;  if  he  refuses 
he  is  good  for  nothing."  But  the  boy  who  could  experi- 
ment in  the  attic  of  an  apothecary  shop  with  an  old 
pan  and  glass  vials  during  every  moment  he  could 
snatch  from  his  work  saw  an  opportunity  in  washing 
bottles,  which  led  to  a  professorship  at  the  Royal  Acad- 
emy at  Woolwich.  Tyndall  said  of  this  boy  with  no 
chance,  "He  is  the  greatest  experimental  philosopher 
the  world  has  ever  seen."  He  became  the  wonder  of 
his  age  in  science. 

There  is  a  legend  of  an  artist  who  long  sought  for  a 
piece  of  sandal-wood,  out  of  which  to  carve  a  Madonna. 


OPPORTUNITIES   WHERE   YOU  ARE.       265 

He  was  about  to  give  up  in  despair,  leaving  the  vision 
of  his  life  unrealized,  when  in  a  dream  he  was  bidden 
to  carve  his  Madonna  from  a  block  of  oak  wood  which 
was  destined  for  the  fire.  He  obeyed,  and  produced  a 
masterpiece  from  a  log  of  common  firewood.  Many  of 
us  lose  great  opportunities  in  life  by  waiting  to  find 
sandal-wood  for  our  carvings,  when  they  really  lie  hid- 
den in  the  common  logs  that  we  burn.  One  man  goes 
through  life  without  seeing  chances  for  doing  anything 
great,  while  another  close  beside  him  snatches  from  the 
same  circumstances  and  privileges  opportunities  for 
achieving  grand  results. 

Anna  Dickinson  began  life  as  a  school-teacher.  Ade- 
laide Neilson  was  a  child's  nurse.  Charlotte  Cushman's 
parents  were  poor.  The  renowned  Jeanne  d'Arc  fed 
swine.  Christine  Nilsson  was  a  poor  Swedish  peasant, 
and  ran  barefoot  in  childhood.  Edmonia  Lewis,  the 
colored  sculptor,  overcame  the  prejudice  against  her  sex 
and  color,  and  pursued  her  profession  in  Italy.  Maria 
Mitchell,  the  astronomer,  was  the  daughter  of  a  poor 
man  who  taught  school  at  two  dollars  per  week.  These 
are  but  a  few  of  the  many  who  have  struggled  with  fate 
and  risen  to  distinction  through  their  own  personal 
efforts. 

Opportunities  ?  They  are  everywhere.  "America 
is  another  name  for  opportunities.  Our  whole  history 
appears  like  a  last  effort  of  divine  Providence  in  behalf 
of  the  human  race."  Never  before  were  there  such  grand 
openings,  such  chances,  such  opportunities.  Especially 
is  this  true  for  girls  and  young  women.  A  new  era  is 
dawning  for  them.  Hundreds  of  occupations  and  pro- 
fessions, which  were  closed  to  them  only  a  few  years 
ago,  are  now  inviting  them  to  enter. 

AVhen  I  hear  of  a  young  woman  entering  the  medical 
profession,  or  beginning  the  study  of  law,  or  entering 
school  with  a  view  to  teaching,  I  feel  like  congratulat- 
ing her  for  thus  asserting  her  individuality. 


266  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

We  cannot  all  of  us  perhaps  make  great  discoveries 
like  Newton,  Faraday,  Edison,  and  Thompson.  We 
cannot  all  of  us  paint  immortal  pictures  like  an  Angelo 
or  a  Raphael.  But  we  can  all  of  us  make  our  lives 
sublime,  by  seizing  common  occasions  and  making  them 
great.  What  chance  had  the  young  girl,  Grace  Darling, 
to  distinguish  herself,  living  on  those  barren  light- 
house rocks  alone  with  her  aged  parents  ?  But  while 
her  brothers  and  sisters,  who  moved  to  the  cities  to  win 
wealth  and  fame,  are  not  known  to  the  world,  she  be- 
came more  famous  than  a  princess.  This  poor  girl  did 
not  need  to  go  to  London  to  see  the  nobility ;  they  came 
to  the  lighthouse  to  see  her.  Right  at  home  this  young 
girl  had  won  fame  which  the  regal  heirs  might  envy, 
and  a  name  which  will  never  perish  from  the  earth. 
She  did  not  wander  away  into  dreamy  distance  for 
fame  and  fortune,  but  did  her  best  where  duty  had 
placed  her. 

If  you  want  to  get  rich,  study  yourself  and  your  own 
wants.  You  will  find  that  millions  have  the  same 
wants.  The  safest  business  is  always  connected  with 
man's  prime  necessities.  He  must  have  clothing  and  a 
dwelling ;  he  must  eat.  He  wants  comforts,  facilities 
of  all  kinds  for  pleasure,  luxuries,  education,  and  culture. 
Any  man  who  can  supply  a  great  want  of  humanity, 
improve  any  methods  which  men  use,  supply  any  de- 
mand of  comfort,  or  contribute  in  any  way  to  their  well- 
being,  can  make  a  fortune. 

"We  cannot  doubt,"  said  Edward  Everett,  "that 
truths  now  unknown  are  in  reserve  to  reward  the  pa- 
tience and  the  labors  of  future  lovers  of  truth,  which 
will  go  as  far  beyond  the  brilliant  discoveries  of  the 
last  generation  as  these  do  beyond  all  that  was  known 
to  the  ancient  world." 

The  golden  opportunity 
Is  never  offered  twice;  seize  then  the  hour 
When  fortune  smiles  and  duty  points  the  way ; 


OPPORTUNITIES   WHERE   YOU  ARE.       267 

Nor  shrink  aside  to  'scape  the  spectre  fear, 

Nor  pause,  though  pleasure  beckon  from  her  bower ; 

But  bravel}^  bear  thee  onward  to  the  goal. 

Anon. 


For  the  distant  still  thou  yearnest, 
And  behold  the  good  so  near; 

If  to  use  the  good  thou  learnest, 
Thou  wilt  surely  find  it  here. 


Goethe. 


Do  not,  then,  stand  idly  waiting 

For  some  greater  work  to  do ; 
Fortune  is  a  lazy  goddess  — 

She  will  never  come  to  you. 
Go  and  toil  in  an}'  vineyard. 

Do  not  fear  to  do  or  dare ; 
If  you  want  a  field  of  labor, 

You  can  find  it  anywhere. 


Ellen  H.  Gates. 


Wh}'  thus  longing,  thus  forever  sighing. 

For  the  far-off,  unattained  and  dim. 
While  the  beautiful,  all  around  thee  lying 

Offers  up  its  low,  perpetual  hymn  ? 

Harriet  Winslow. 


Work  for  the  good  that  is  nighest ;    • 

Dream  not  of  greatness  afar : 
That  glory  is  ever  the  highest 

Which  shines  upon  men  as  they  are. 

W.  MORLEY  PUNSHON. 


CHAPTER   Xy. 

THE    MIGHT    OF    LITTLE    THINGS. 

Little  strokes  fell  great  oaks.  —  Franklin. 

Think  naught  a  trifle,  though  it  small  appear; 
Small  sands  the  mountain,  moments  make  the  year, 
And  trifles,  life.  Young. 

"  Scorn  not  the  slightest  word  or  deed, 
Nor  deem  it  void  of  power; 
There  's  fruit  in  each  wind-wafted  seed, 
That  waits  its  natal  hour." 
It  is  but  the  littleness  of  man  that  seeth  no  greatness  in  trifles.  —  Wen- 
dell Phillips. 

He  that  despiseth  small  things  shall  fall  by  little  and  little.  —  Eccle- 

SIASTICUS. 

Often  from  our  weakness  our  strongest  principles  of  conduct  are  born; 
and  from  the  acorn,  which  a  breeze  has  wafted,  springs  the  oak  which 
defies  the  storm.  — Bulwer. 

The  creation  of  a  thousand  forests  is  in  one  acorn.  —  Emerson. 
Men  are  led  by  trifles.  —  Napoleon  I. 

*'  A  pebble  on  the  streamlet  scant 

Has  turned  the  course  of  many  a  river; 
A  dew^drop  on  the  baby  plant 
Has  warped  the  giant  oak  forever." 
The  mother  of  mischief  is  no  bigger  than  a  midge's  wing.  —  Scotch 
Proverb. 

"The  bad  thing  about  a  little  sin  is  that  it  won't  stay  little." 
"A  little  bit  of  patience  often  makes  the  sunshine  come, 
And  a  little  bit  of  love  makes  a  very  happ}'  home  ; 
A  little  bit  of  hope  makes  a  rainy  day  look  gay, 
And  a  little  bit  of  charity  makes  glad  a  weary  way." 

"Arletta's  pretty  feet,  glistening  in  the  brook, 
made  her  the  mother  of  William  the  Conqueror,"  says 
Palgrave's  "  History  of  Normandy  and  England."  "  Had 
she  not  thus  fascinated  Duke  Robert  the  Liberal,  of 
Normandy,  Harold  would  not  have  fallen  at  Hastings, 


AGASSIZ 
Small  things  become  great  when  a  great  soul  f-ees  them.     Trifles  liglit  as  air 
sometimes  suggest  to  the  thinking  mind  ideas  which  revolutionize  the  world. 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  269 

no  Anglo-Korman  dynasty  could  have  arisen,  no  Britisli 
Empire." 

We  may  tell  which  way  the  wind  blew  before  the 
Deluge  by  marking  the  ripple  and  cupping  of  the  rain 
in  the  petrified  sand  now  preserved  forever.  We  tell 
the  very  path  by  which  gigantic  creatures,  whom  man 
never  saw,  walked  to  the  river's  edge  to  find  their  food. 

The  tears  of  Veturia  and  Volumnia  saved  Rome  from 
the  Yolscians  when  nothing  else  could  move  the  venge- 
ful heart  of  Coriolanus. 

It  was  little  Greece  that  rolled  back  the  overflowing 
tide  of  Asiatic  luxury  and  despotism,  giving  instead  to 
Europe  and  America  models  of  the  highest  political  free- 
dom yet  attained,  and  germs  of  limitless  mental  growth. 
A  different  result  at  Platsea  had  delayed  the  progress  of 
the  human  race  more  than  ten  centuries. 

Among  the  lofty  Alps,  it  is  said,  the  guides  some- 
times demand  absolute  silence,  lest  the  vibration  of  the 
voice  bring  down  an  avalanche. 

The  power  of  observation  in  the  American  Indian 
would  put  many  an  educated  man  to  shame.  Returning 
home,  an  Indian  discovered  that  his  venison,  which  had 
been  hanging  up  to  dry,  had  been  stolen.  After  careful 
observation  he  started  to  track  the  thief  through  the 
woods.  Meeting  a  man  on  the  route,  he  asked  him  if  he 
had  seen  a  little,  old,  white  man,  with  a  short  gun,  and 
with  a  small  bob-tailed  dog.  The  man  told  him  he  had 
met  such  a  man,  but  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  In- 
dian had  not  even  seen  the  one  he  described.  He  asked 
the  Indian  how  he  could  give  such  a  minute  description 
of  the  man  whom  he  had  never  seen.  "  I  knew  the  thief 
was  a  little  man,"  said  the  Indian,  "  because  he  rolled 
up  a  stone  to  stand  on  in  order  to  reach  the  venison  ;  I 
knew  he  was  an  old  man  by  his  short  steps  ;  I  knew  he 
was  a  white  man  by  his  turning  out  his  toes  in  walking, 
which  an  Indian  never  does  ;  I  knew  he  had  a  short  gun 
by  the  mark  it  left  on  the  tree  where  he  had  stood  it 


270  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

up  ;  I  knew  the  dog  was  small  by  liis  tracks  and  short 
steps,  and  that  he  had  a  bob-tail  by  the  mark  it  left  in 
the  dust  where  he  sat." 

Two  drops  of  rain,  falling  side  by  side,  were  separated 
a  few  inches  by  a  gentle  breeze.  Striking  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  roof  of  a  court-house  in  Wisconsin,  one 
rolled  southward  through  the  Eock  Eiver  and  the  Miss- 
issippi to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  ;  while  the  other  entered 
successively  the  Fox  Eiver,  Green  Bay,  Lake  Michigan, 
the  Straits  of  Mackinaw,  Lake  Huron,  St.  Clair  Eiver, 
Lake  St.  Clair,  Detroit  Eiver,  Lake  Erie,  Niagara  Eiver, 
Lake  Ontario,  the  St.  Lawrence  Eiver,  and  finally 
reached  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  How  slight  the  in- 
fluence of  the  breeze,  yet  such  was  the  formation  of  the 
continent  that  a  trifling  cause  was  multiplied  almost 
beyond  the  power  of  figures  to  express  its  momentous 
effect  upon  the  destinies  of  these  companion  raindrops. 
Who  can  calculate  the  future  of  the  smallest  trifle  when 
a  mud  crack  swells  to  an  Amazon,  and  the  stealing  of  a 
penny  may  end  on  the  scaffold  ?  Who  does  not  know 
that  the  act  of  a  moment  may  cause  a  life's  regret  ?  A 
trigger  may  be  pulled  in  an  instant,  but  the  soul  returns 
never. 

A  spark  falling  upon  some  combustibles  led  to  the  in- 
vention of  gunpowder.  Irritable  tempers  have  marred 
the  reputation  of  many  a  great  man,  as  in  the  case  of 
Edmund  Burke  and  of  Thomas  Carlyle.  A  few  bits  of 
seaweed  and  driftwood,  floating  on  the  waves,  enabled 
Columbus  to  stay  a  mutiny  of  his  sailors  which  threat- 
ened to  prevent  the  discovery  of  a  new  world.  There 
are  moments  in  history  which  balance  years  of  ordinary 
life.  Dana  could  interest  a  class  for  hours  on  a  grain  of 
sand  ;  and  from  a  single  bone,  such  as  no  one  had  ever 
seen  before,  Agassiz  could  deduce  the  entire  structure 
and  habits  of  an  animal  so  accurately  that  subsequent 
discoveries  of  complete  skeletons  have  not  changed  one 
of  his  conclusions. 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE  THINGS.  271 

A  cricket  once  saved  a  military  expedition  from  de- 
struction. The  commanding  officer  and  hundreds  of  his 
men  were  going  to  South  America  on  a  great  ship,  and, 
through  the  carelessness  of  the  watch,  they  would  have 
been  dashed  upon  a  ledge  of  rock  had  it  not  been  for  a 
cricket  which  a  soldier  had  brought  on  board.  When 
the  little  insect  scented  the  land,  it  broke  its  long  silence 
by  a  shrill  note,  and  this  warned  them  of  their  danger. 

"  Strange  that  a  little  thing  like  that  should  cause  a 
man  so  much  pain  ! "  exclaimed  a  giant,  as  he  rolled  in 
his  hand  and  examined  with  eager  curiosity  the  acorn 
which  his  friend  the  dwarf  had  obligingly  taken  from 
the  huge  eye  into  which  it  had  fallen  just  as  the  colos- 
sus was  on  the  point  of  shooting  a  bird  perched  in  the 
branches  of  an  oak. 

Sometimes  a  conversation,  or  a  sentence  in  a  letter, 
or  a  paragraph  in  an  article,  will  help  us  to  reproduce 
the  whole  character  of  the  author ;  as  a  single  bone,  a 
fish  scale,  a  fin,  or  a  tooth,  will  enable  the  scientist  and 
anatomist  to  reproduce  the  fish  or  the  animal,  although 
extinct  for  ages. 

By  gnawing  through  a  dike,  even  a  rat  may  drown  a 
nation.  A  little  boy  in  Holland  saw  water  trickling 
from  a  small  hole  near  the  bottom  of  a  dike.  He  realized 
that  the  leak  would  rapidly  become  larger  if  the  water 
was  not  checked,  so  he  held  his  hand  over  the  hole  for 
hours  on  a  dark  and  dismal  night  until  he  could  attract 
the  attention  of  passers-by.  His  name  is  still  held  in 
grateful  remembrance  in  Holland. 

The  beetling  chalk  cliffs  of  England  were  built  by 
rhizopods,  too  small  to  be  clearly  seen  without  the  aid 
of  a  magnifying-glass. 

What  was  so  unlikely  as  that  throwing  an  empty 
wine-flask  in  the  fire  should  furnish  the  first  notion  of 
a  locomotive,  or  that  the  sickness  of  an  Italian  chemist's 
wife  and  her  absurd  craving  for  reptiles  for  food  should 
begin  the  electric  telegraph  ? 


272  ARciirri'Jcrs  of  fate. 

]\l;ulanu^  (Inlvani  iioiictMl  llu>  coiU, ruction  oT  tin*  miis- 
cU'soT  ;i  skiiinod  frog  wlii(;li  was  accidoiitally  toucluMl  at 
tlio  inoiuiMit  lu-r  husband  took  a  spark  Uoxw  an  oloctri- 
cal  macliino.  Sho  gave  the  hint  whicli  h^d  to  tlie  dis- 
covory  o^  galvanic  cdcctricity,  now  so  us(d'ul  in  the  arts 
and  in  transmitting  vocal  or  written  language. 

]\1.  Louis  Tasteur  was  usIum-  m  llu»  liyciMini.  Thurs- 
days he  took  the  boys  to  wallv.  A  student  took  his  lui- 
eroscopeto  examine  insects,  and  allowed  I'asteur  to  look 
through  it.  This  was  the  starting  oi'  the  boy  on  the 
niicroscoi)ic  career  whit'h  has  made  men  wonder.  He 
was  almost  wild  with  enthusiasm  at  the  niMv  world 
which  the  microsco]ie  revealed. 

A  stamp  act  to  raise  .^.MIO.OOO  produetMl  tlu^  AnHu-icaii 
Kevolution,  a  war  that  eost  .-t*  lOO.OOO.OOO.  What 
mighty  contests  rise  from  trivial  things  ! 

Congress  met  near  a  livery  stabh^  to  discuss  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  The  members,  in  knee 
breeches  and  silk  stockings,  were  so  annoyed  by  flies, 
which  they  could  not  k(H^p  away  with  their  handker- 
chiefs, that  it  has  been  said  thev  eut  short  the  debate, 
and  hastened  to  affix  their  signatures  to  the  greatest 
document  in  history. 

"  The  fate  of  a  nation,''  says  (iladston(\  "  has  ofti^n  de- 
]HMi(ltMl  upon  the  got^il  or  bad  digestit)n  o{  a.  tine  dinner.'^ 
A  yt>ung  man  once  went  to  India  to  seek  his  fortune, 
but,  finding  no  opening,  he  went  to  his  room,  loaded  his 
pistol,  ])ut  the  muzzle  to  his  head,  and  pulUnl  the  trig- 
ger. Hut  it  did  not  go  olY.  \\c  wiuit  to  the  window  to 
point  it  in  ani)ther  direction  and  try  it  again,  resolviul 
that  if  the  weapon  went  olT  he  would  regard  it  as  a 
l*rovid(MU'e  that  he  was  spared,  lie  ]ndled  the  trigger 
and  it  went  olT  the  first  tinH\  Trendiling  with  excite- 
ment he  resolved  to  hold  his  lit'(^  sacred,  to  mak(^  the 
most  of  it,  and  never  again  to  cheapen  it.  This  yt>ung 
man  beeanu^  (General  Kobert  Clive,  who,  with  but  a 
handful  of  European  soldiers,  secured  to  the  East  India 


THE   MKillT   or  LITTLE    THINGS.  273 

(^iiupany  and  artorwards  to  CJroat    r>ri(,ain  a  i^ri^a.t  and 
rich  country  with  two  hundred  millions  of  people. 

The  cackling  of  a  goose  aroused  the  sentinels  and 
saved  Rome  from  the  Gauls,  and  the  pain  from  a  this- 
tle warned  a  S(U)ttish  army  of  the  a,pi)r()a,('h  of  the 
Danes.  "  Had  Acre  fallen,''  said  Napoleon,  "  1  should 
have  changed  the  face  of  the  world." 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  came  within  one  vote  of  being 
elected  superint(Mulent  of  a  railway.  If  he  had  had 
that  vote  America  would  prohahly  have  lost  its  greatest 
preacher.     What  a  little  thing  lixes  destiny  ! 

In  the  earliest  days  of  cotton  spinning,  <,he  small 
iibres  would  stick  to  the  bobbins,  and  make  it  necessary 
to  stop  and  clear  the  macliinery.  AK.hough  this  loss  of 
time  reduced  the  earnings  of  the  operatives,  the  father 
of  llobert  Peel  noticed  that  one  of  his  spinners  always 
drew  full  pay,  as  his  machine  never  stopped.  "  How 
is  this,  Dick  ?  "  asked  Mr.  Peel  one  day  ;  "  the  on-looker 
tells  me  your  bobbins  are  always  clean."  "  Ay,  that 
they  be,"  replied  Dick  Ferguson.  *'  I  Tow  do  you  man- 
age it,  Dick  ?  "  "  Why,  you  see,  Meester  ]*eel,"  said 
the  workman,  "  it  is  sort  o'  secret !  If  I  tow'd  ye,  yo'd 
be  as  wise  as  I  am."  "That's  so,"  said  Mr.  Peel,  smil- 
ing ;  "  but  I  'd  give  you  something  to  know,  ('ould  you 
make  all  the  looms  work  as  smoothly  as  yours  ? " 
"  Ivery  one  of  'em,  meester,"  replied  Dick.  "  Well, 
what  shall  I  give  you  for  your  secret  ?  "  asked  Mr. 
Peel,  and  Dick  rei)lie(l,  "(Ji'  me  a  (piart  of  ale  every 
day  as  I  'm  in  the  mills,  and  I  '11  tell  thee  all  about  it." 
"Agreed,"  said  Mr.  Peel,  and  Dick  whispered  very 
cautiously  in  his  ear,  "  Chalk^  your  bobbins  !  "  That 
was  the  whole  secret,  and  Mr.  l*eel  soon  shot  ahead  of 
all  his  competitors,  for  he  made  machines  that  would 
chalk  their  own  bobbins.  Dick  was  handsomely  re- 
warded with  money  instead  of  beer.  His  little  idea 
has  saved  the  world  millions  of  (h)llars. 

Trilles  liglit  as  air  oftiMi  suggest  to  tlu^  thinking  mind 
ideas  which  liavi^  rtnolutioiii/ed  i,he  world. 


274  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

A  poor  English  boy  was  compelled  by  his  employer 
to  deposit  something  on  board  a  ship  about  to  start  for 
Algiers,  in  accordance  with  the  merchant's  custom  of 
interesting  employees  by  making  them  put  something 
at  risk  in  his  business  and  so  share  in  the  gain  or  loss 
of  each  common  venture.  The  boy  had  only  a  cat, 
which  he  had  bought  for  a  penny  to  catch  mice  in  the 
garret  where  he  slept.  In  tears,  he  carried  her  on 
board  the  vessel.  On  arriving  at  Algiers,  the  captain 
learned  that  the  Dey  was  greatly  annoyed  by  rats,  and 
loaned  him  the  cat.  The  rats  disappeared  so  rapidly 
that  the  Dey  wished  to  buy  the  cat,  but  the  captain 
would  not  sell  until  a  very  high  price  was  offered.  With 
the  purchase-money  was  sent  a  present  of  valuable 
pearls  for  the  owner  of  Tabby.  When  the  ship  returned 
the  sailors  were  greatly  astonished  to  find  that  the  boy 
owned  most  of  the  cargo,  for  it  was  part  of  the  bargain 
that  he  was  to  bring  back  the  value  of  his  cat  in  goods. 
The  London  merchant  took  the  boy  into  partnership ; 
the  latter  became  very  wealthy,  and  in  the  course  of 
business  loaned  money  to  the  Dey  who  had  bought 
the  cat.  As  Lord  Mayor  of  London,  our  cat  merchant 
was  knighted,  and  became  the  second  man  in  the  city, 
—  Sir  Eichard  Whittington. 

When  John  Williams,  the  martyr  missionary  of 
Erromanga,  went  to  the  South  Sea  Islands,  he  took  with 
him  a  single  banana-tree  from  an  English  nobleman's 
conservatory;  and  now,  from  that  single  banana-tree, 
bananas  are  to  be  found  throughout  whole  groups  of 
islands.  Before  the  negro  slaves  in  the  West  Indies 
were  emancipated  a  regiment  of  British  soldiers  was 
stationed  near  one  of  the  plantations.  A  soldier,  offered 
to  teach  a  slave  to  read  on  condition  that  he  would 
teach  a  second,  and  that  second  a  third,  and  so  on. 
This  the  slave  faithfully  carried  out,  though  severely 
flogged  by  the  master  of  the  plantation.  Being  sent  to 
another  plantation,  he  repeated  the  same  thing  there, 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  275 

and  when  at  length  liberty  was  proclaimed  throughout 
the  island,  and  the  Bible  Society  offered  a  New  Testa- 
ment to  every  negro  who  could  read,  the  number  taught 
through  this  slave's  instrumentality  was  found  to  be  no 
less  than  six  hundred. 

A  famous  ruby  was  offered  to  the  English  government. 
The  report  of  the  crown  jeweler  was  that  it  was  the  fin- 
est he  had  ever  seen  or  heard  of,  but  that  one  of  the 
"  facets  "  was  slightly  fractured.  That  invisible  frac- 
ture reduced  its  value  thousands  of  dollars,  and  it  was 
rejected  from  the  regalia  of  England. 

It  was  a  little  thing  for  the  janitor  to  leave  a  lamp 
swinging  in  the  cathedral  at  Pisa,  but  in  that  steady 
swaying  motion  the  boy  Galileo  saw  the  pendulum,  and 
conceived  the  idea  of  thus  measuring  time. 

"  I  was  singing  to  the  mouthpiece  of  a  telephone,'^ 
said  Edison,  "  when  the  vibrations  of  my  voice  caused  a 
fine  steel  xwint  to  pierce  one  of  my  fingers  held  just  be- 
hind it.  That  set  me  to  thinking.  If  I  could  record 
the  motions  of  the  point  and  send  it  over  the  same  sur- 
face afterward,  I  saw  no  reason  why  the  thing  would 
not  talk.  I  determined  to  make  a  machine  that  would 
work  accurately,  and  gave  my  assistants  the  necessary 
instructions,  telling  them  what  I  had  discovered. 
That 's  the  whole  story.  The  phonograph  is  the  result 
of  the  pricking  of  a  finger." 

It  was  a  little  thing  for  a  cow  to  kick  over  a  lantern 
left  in  a  shanty,  but  it  laid  Chicago  in  ashes,  and  ren- 
dered homeless  a  hundred  thousand  people. 

You  turned  a  cold  shoulder  hvit  once,  you  made  but 
one  stinging  remark,  yet  it  lost  you  a  friend  forever. 

Some  little  weakness,  some  self-indulgence,  a  quick 
temper,  want  of  decision,  are  little  things,  you  say,  when 
placed  beside  great  abilities,  but  they  have  wrecked  many 
a  career.  The  Parliament  of  Great  Britain,  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States,  and  representative  govern- 
ments all  over  the  world  have  come  from  King  John 
signing  the  Magna  Charta. 


27G  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Bentham  says,  "  The  turn  of  a  sentence  has  decided 
many  a  friendship,  and,  for  aught  we  know,  the  fate  of 
many  a  kingdom." 

The  sight  of  a  stranded  cuttlefish  led  Cuvier  to  an 
investigation  which  made  him  one  of  the  greatest  natu- 
ral historians  in  the  world.  The  web  of  a  spider  sug- 
gested to  Captain  Brown  the  idea  of  a  suspension  bridge. 
A  man,  looking  for  a  lost  horse,  picked  up  a  stone  in  the 
Idaho  mountains  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a  rich 
gold  mine. 

An  'officer  apologized  to  General  0.  M.  Mitchel,  the 
astronomer,  for  a  brief  delay,  saying  he  was  only  a  few 
moments  late.  "  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  calculating 
the  value  of  the  thousandth  part  of  a  second,"  was 
Mitchel' s  reply. 

A  missing  marriage  certificate  kept  the  hod-carrier  of 
Hugh  Miller  from  establishing  his  claim  to  the  Earldom 
of  Crawford.  The  masons  would  call  out,  "  John,  Yearl 
of  Crawford,  bring  us  anither  hod  o'  lime." 

Not  long  ago  the  great  steamship  Umbria  was  stopped 
in  mid-Atlantic  by  a  flaw  in  her  engine  shaft. 

The  absence  of  a  comma  in  a  bill  which  passed  through 
Congress  several  years  ago  cost  our  government  a  mil- 
lion dollars.  A  single  misspelled  word  prevented  a 
deserving  young  man  from  obtaining  a  situation  as  in- 
structor in  a  New  England  college.  A  cinder  on  the 
eyeball  will  conquer  a  Napoleon.  Some  little  weak- 
ness, as  lack  of  courtesy,  want  of  decision,  a  bad  temper, 
may  nullify  the  labor  of  years. 

"  I  cannot  see  that  you  have  made  any  progress  since 
my  last  visit,"  said  a  gentleman  to  Michael  Angelo. 
''But,"  said  the  sculptor,  "I  have  retouched  this  part, 
polished  that,  softened  that  feature,  brought  out  that 
muscle,  given  some  expression  to  this  lip,  more  energy 
to  that  limb,  etc."  "  But  they  are  trifles  !  "  exclaimed 
the  visitor.  "It  may  be  so,"  replied  the  great  artist, 
"  but  trifles  make  perfection,  and  perfection  is  no  trifle." 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  211 

That  infinite  patience  which  made  Michael  Angelo  spend 
a  week  in  bringing  out  a  muscle  in  a  statue  with  more 
vital  fidelity  to  truth,  or  Gerhard  Dow  a  day  in  giving 
the  right  effect  to  a  dewdrop  on  a  cabbage  leaf,  makes  all 
the  difference  between  success  and  failure. 

By  scattering  it  upon  a  sloping  field  of  grain  so  as  to 
form,  in  letters  of  great  size,  "Effects  of  Gypsum,'' 
Franklin  brought  this  fertilizer  into  general  use  in 
America.  By  means  of  a  kite  he  established  principles 
in  the  science  of  electricity  of  such  broad  significance 
that  they  underlie  nearly  all  the  modern  applications  of 
that  science,  with  probably  boundless  possibilities  of 
development  in  the  future. 

More  than  four  hundred  and  fifty  years  have  passed 
since  Laurens  Coster  amused  his  children  by  cutting 
their  names  in  the  bark  of  trees,  in  the  land  of  wind- 
mills, and  the  monks  have  laid  aside  forever  their  old 
trade  of  copying  books.  From  that  day  monarchies  have 
crumbled,  and  Liberty,  lifting  up  her  head  for  the  first 
time  among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  has  ever  since  kept 
pace  with  the  march  of  her  sister,  Knowledge,  up  through 
the  centuries.  Yet  how  simple  was  the  thought  which 
has  borne  such  a  rich  harvest  of  benefit  to  mankind. 

As  he  carved  the  names  of  his  prattling  children  it 
occurred  to  him  that  if  the  letters  were  made  in  sepa- 
rate blocks,  and  wet  with  ink,  they  would  make  clear 
printed  impressions  better  and  more  rapidly  than  would 
the  pen.  So  he  made  blocks,  tied  them  together  with 
strings,  and  printed  a  pamphlet  with  the  aid  of  a  hired 
man,  John  Gutenberg.  People  bought  the  pamphlets 
at  a  slight  reduction  from  the  price  charged  by  the 
monks,  supposing  that  the  work  was  done  in  the  old 
way.  Coster  died  soon  afterward,  but  young  Guten- 
berg kept  the  secret,  and  experimented  with  metals 
until  he  had  invented  the  metal  type.  In  an  obscure 
chamber  in  Strasburg  he  printed  his  first  book. 

At  about  this  time  a  traveler  called  upon  Charles  VII. 


278  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

of  France,  who  was  so  afraid  somebody  would  poison 
him  that  he  dared  eat  but  little,  and  made  his  servants 
taste  of  every  dish  of  food  before  he  ate  any.  He 
looked  with  susxjicion  upon  the  stranger ;  but  when 
the  latter  offered  a  beautiful  copy  of  the  Bible  for  only 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  crowns,  the  monarch  bought  it 
at  once.  Charles  showed  his  Bible  to  the  archbishop, 
telling  him  that  it  was  the  finest  copy  in  the  world, 
without  a  blot  or  mistake,  and  that  it  must  have  taken 
the  copyist  a  lifetime  to  write  it.  "  Why  !  "  exclaimed 
the  archbishop  in  surprise,  "  I  bought  one  exactly  like 
it  a  few  days  ago."  It  was  soon  learned  that  other  rich 
people  in  Paris  had  bought  similar  copies.  The  king 
traced  the  book  to  John  Faust,  of  Strasburg,  who  had 
furnished  Gutenberg  money  to  experiment  with.  The 
people  said  that  Faust  must  have  sold  himself  to  the 
devil,  and  he  only  escaped  burning  at  the  stake  by 
divulging  the  secret. 

William  Caxton,  a  London  merchant  who  went  to 
Holland  to  purchase  cloth,  bought  a  few  books  and 
some  type,  and  established  a  printing-office  in  West- 
minster Chapel,  where  he  issued,  in  1474,  "  The  Game 
of  Chess,"  the  first  book  printed  in  England. 

The  cry  of  the  infant  Moses  attracted  the  attention 
of  Pharaoh's  daughter,  and  gave  the  Jews  a  lawgiver. 
A  bird  alighting  on  the  bough  of  a  tree  at  the  mouth  of 
the  cave  where  Mahomet  lay  hid  turned  aside  his  pur- 
suers, and  gave  a  prophet  to  many  nations.  A  flight  of 
birds  probably  prevented  Columbus  from  discovering 
this  continent,  for  when  he  was  growing  anxious,  Mar- 
tin Alonzo  Pinzon  persuaded  him  to  follow  a  flight  of 
parrots  toward  the  southwest ;  for  to  the  Spanish  sea- 
men of  that  day  it  was  good  luck  to  follow  in  the  wake 
of  a  flock  of  birds  when  on  a  voyage  of  discovery.  But 
for  his  change  of  course  Columbus  would  have  reached 
the  coast  of  Florida.  "  Never,"  wrote  Humboldt,  "  had 
the    flight    of    birds   more    important    consequences." 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  279 

The  children  of  a  spectacle-maker  placed  two  or  more 
pairs  of  the  spectacles  before  each  other  in  play,  and 
told  their  father  that  distant  objects  looked  larger. 
From  this  hint  came  the  telescope. 

"  Of  what  use  is  it  ? "  people  asked  with  a  sneer, 
when  Franklin  told  of  his  discovery  that  lightning  and 
electricity  are  identical.  "  What  is  the  use  of  a  child  ?  '^ 
replied  Franklin ;  "  it  may  become  a  man." 

"  He  who  waits  to  do  a  great  deal  of  good  at  once," 
said  Dr.  Johnson,  "  will  never  do  any."  Do  good  with 
what  thou  hast,  or  it  will  do  thee  no  good. 

Every  day  is  a  little  life ;  and  our  whole  life  but  a 
day  repeated.  Those  that  dare  lose  a  day  are  danger- 
ously prodigal ;  those  that  dare  misspend  it,  desperate. 
What  is  the  happiness  of  your  life  made  up  of  ?  Little 
courtesies,  little  kindnesses,  pleasant  words,  genial 
smiles,  a  friendly  letter,  good  wishes,  and  good  deeds. 
One  in  a  million  —  once  in  a  lifetime  —  may  do  a  he- 
roic action.  The  atomic  theory  is  the  true  one.  Many 
think  common  fractions  vulgar,  but  they  are  the  compo- 
nents of  millions. 

He  is  a  great  man  who  sees  great  things  where  others 
see  little  things,  who  sees  the  extraordinary  in  the  ordi- 
nary. Kuskin  sees  a  poem  in  the  rose  or  the  lily,  while 
the  hod-carrier  would  perhaps  not  go  a  rod  out  of  his 
way  to  see  a  sunset  which  E-uskin  would  feed  upon  for 
a  year. 

Napoleon  was  a  master  of  trifles.  To  details  which  his 
inferior  officers  thought  too  microscopic  for  their  notice 
he  gave  the  most  exhaustive  attention.  Nothing  was  too 
small  for  his  attention.  He  must  know  all  about  the 
provisions,  the  horse  fodder,  the  biscuits,  the  camp  ket- 
tles, the  shoes.  When  the  bugle  sounded  for  the  march 
to  battle,  every  officer  had  his  orders  as  to  the  exact 
route  which  he  should  follow,  the  exact  day  he  was  to 
arrive  at  a  certain  station,  and  the  exact  hour  he  was  to 
leave,  and  they  were  all  to  reach  the  point  of  destina- 


280  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

tiou  at  a  precise  moment.  It  is  said  that  nothing  could 
be  more  perfectly  planned  than  his  memorable  march 
which  led  to  the  victory  of  Austerlitz,  and  which  sealed 
the  fate  of  Europe  for  many  years.  He  would  often 
charge  his  absent  officers  to  send  him  perfectly  accurate 
returns,  even  to  the  smallest  detail.  "  When  the}^  are 
sent  to  me,  I  give  up  every  occupation  in  order  to  read 
them  in  detail,  and  to  observe  the  difference  between 
one  monthly  return  and  another.  No  young  girl  enjoys 
her  novel  as  much  as  I  do  these  returns."  The  captain 
who  conveyed  Napoleon  to  Elba  was  astonished  with 
his  familiarity  with  all  the  minute  details  connected 
with  the  ship.  Napoleon  left  nothing  to  chance,  no- 
thing to  contingency,  so  far  as  he  could  possibly  avoid 
it.  Everything  was  planned  to  a  nicety  before  he  at- 
tempted to  execute  it. 

Wellington  too  w^as  "  great  in  little  things."  He 
knew  no  such  things  as  trifles.  While  other  generals 
trusted  to  subordinates,  he  gave  his  personal  attention 
to  the  minutest  detail.  The  history  of  many  a  failure 
could  be  written  in  three  words,  "Lack  of  detail." 
How  many  a  lawyer  has  failed  from  the  lack  of  details 
in  deeds  and  important  papers,  the  lack  of  little  words 
which  seemed  like  surplusage,  and  which  involved  his 
clients  in  litigation,  and  often  great  losses  !  How  many 
wills  are  contested  from  the  carelessness  of  lawyers  in 
the  omission  or  shading  of  words,  or  ambiguous  use  of 
language ! 

Physicians  often  fail  to  make  a  reputation  through 
their  habitual  blundering,  carelessness  in  writing  pre- 
scriptions, failure  to  give  minute  instruction.  The  world 
is  full  of  blunderers  ;  business  men  fail  from  a  disre- 
gard of  trifles  ;  they  go  to  the  bank  to  pay  a  note  the 
day  after  it  has  gone  to  protest ;  they  do  not  pay  their 
bills  promptly ;  do  not  answer  their  letters  promptly  or 
file  them  away  accurately  ;  their  books  do  not  quite  bal- 
ance ;  they  do  not  know  exactly  how  they  stand ;  they 
have  a  contempt  for  details. 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  281 

"  My  rule  of  conduct  has  been  that  whatever  is  worth 
doing  at  all  is  worth  doing  well,"  said  Nicolas  Poussin, 
the  great  Trench  painter.  When  asked  the  reason  why- 
he  had  become  so  eminent  in  a  land  of  famous  artists 
he  replied,  "  Because  I  have  neglected  nothing." 

Not  even  Helen  of  Troy,  it  is  said,  was  beautiful 
enough  to  spare  the  tip  of  her  nose ;  and  if  Cleopatra's 
had  been  an  inch  shorter  Mark  Antony  would  never 
have  become  infatuated  with  her  wonderful  charms,  and 
the  blemish  would  have  changed  the  history  of  the 
world.  Anne  Boleyn's  fascinating  smile  split  the  great 
Church  of  Rome  in  twain,  and  gave  a  nation  an  altered 
destiny.  Napoleon,  who  feared  not  to  attack  the  proud- 
est monarchs  in  their  capitols,  shrank  from  the  politi- 
cal influence  of  one  independent  woman  in  private  life, 
Madame  de  Stael.  Had  not  Scott  sprained  his  foot  his 
life  would  probably  have  taken  a  different  direction. 

Cromwell  was  about  to  sail  for  America  when  a  law 
was  passed  prohibiting  emigration.  At  that  time  he  was 
a  profligate,  having  squandered  all  his  property.  But 
when  he  found  that  he  could  not  leave  England  he  re- 
formed his  life.  Had  he  not  been  detained  who  can 
tell  what  the  history  of  Great  Britain  would  have  been  ? 

When  one  of  his  friends  asked  Scopas  the  Thessalian 
for  something  that  could  be  of  little  use  to  him,  he  an- 
swered, "  It  is  in  these  useless  and  superfluous  things 
that  I  am  rich  and  happy." 

It  was  the  little  foxes  that  spoiled  the  vines  in  Solo- 
mon's day.  Mites  play  mischief  now  with  our  meal  and 
cheese,  moths  with  our  woolen^  and  furs,  and  mice  in 
our  pantries.  More  than  half  our  diseases  are  produced 
by  infinitesimal  creatures  called  microbes. 

Most  people  call  fretting  a  minor  fault,  a  foible,  and 
not  a  vice.  There  is  no  vice  except  drunkenness  which 
can  so  utterly  destroy  the  peace,  the  happiness,  of  a 
home. 

"We  call  the  large  majority  of  human  lives  obscure," 


282  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

says  Bulwer,  "  presumptuous  that  we  are  !  How  know 
we  what  lives  a  single  thought  retained  from  the  dust 
of  nameless  graves  may  have  lighted  to  renown  ?  " 

The  theft  of  a  diamond  necklace  from  a  French  queen 
convulsed  Europe.  From  the  careful  and  persistent  ac- 
cumulation of  innumerable  facts,  each  trivial  in  itself, 
but  in  the  aggregate  forming  a  mass  of  evidence,  a  Dar- 
win extracts  his  law  of  evolution,  and  Linnaeus  con- 
structs the  science  of  botany.  A  pan  of  water  and  two 
thermometers  were  the  tools  by  which  Dr.  Black  dis- 
covered latent  heat ;  and  a  prism,  a  lens,  and  a  sheet  of 
pasteboard  enabled  Newton  to  unfold  the  composition 
of  light  and  the  origin  of  colors.  An  eminent  foreign 
savant  called  on  Dr.  Wollaston,  and  asked  to  be  shown 
over  those  laboratories  of  his  in  which  science  had  been 
enriched  by  so  many  great  discoveries,  when  the  doctor 
took  him  into  a  little  study,  and,  pointing  to  an  old  tea 
tray  on  the  table,  on  which  stood  a  few  watch  glasses, 
test  papers,  a  small  balance,  and  a  blow-pipe,  said, 
"  There  is  my  laboratorj^"  A  burnt  stick  and  a  barn 
door  served  Wilkie  in  lieu  of  pencil  and  paper.  A 
single  potato,  carried  to  England  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh 
in  the  sixteenth  century,  has  multiplied  into  food  for 
millions,  driving  famine  from  Ireland  again  and  again. 

It  seemed  a  small  thing  to  drive  William  Brewster, 
John  Eobinson,  and  the  poor  people  of  Austerfield  and 
Scrooby  into  perpetual  exile,  but  as  Pilgrims  they  be- 
came the  founders  of  a  mighty  people.  A  cloud  may 
hide  the  sun  which  it  cannot  extinguish. 

"  Behold  how  great  a  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth."  "  A 
look  of  vexation  or  a  word  coldly  spoken,  or  a  little  help 
thoughtlessly  withheld,  may  produce  long  issues  of  re- 
gret." 

It  was  but  a  little  dispute,  a  little  flash  of  temper, 
the  trigger  was  pulled  in  an  instant,  but  the  soul  re- 
turned never. 

A  few  immortal  sentences  from  Garrison  and  Phillips, 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  283 

a  few  poems  from  Lowell  and  Whittier,  and  the  leaven 
is  at  work  whicli  will  not  cease  its  action  until  the  whip- 
ping-post and  bodily  servitude  are  abolished  forever. 

"For  want  of  a  nail  the  shoe  was  lost, 
For  want  of  a  shoe  the  horse  was  lost; 
For  want  of  a  horse  the  rider  was  lost,  and  all," 

saj^s  Poor  Eichard,  "  for  want  of  a  horse-shoe  nail." 

A  single  remark  dropped  by  an  unknown  person  in 
the  street  led  to  the  successful  story  of  "  The  Bread- 
winners." A  hymn  chanted  by  the  barefooted  friars 
in  the  temple  of  Jupiter  at  Eome  led  to  the  famous 
"Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire." 

"  Do  little  things  now,"  says  a  Persian  proverb  ;  "  so 
shall  big  things  come  to  thee  by  and  by  asking  to  be 
done."  God  will  take  care  of  the  great  things  if  we  do 
not  neglect  the  little  ones. 

"  Words  are  things,"  says  Byron,  "  and  a  small  drop 
of  ink,  falling  like  dew  upon  a  thought,  produces  that 
which  makes  thousands,  perhaps  millions  think." 

"  I  give  these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college  in 
this  colony  ;  "  such  were  the  words  of  ten  ministers 
who  in  the  year  1700  assembled  at  the  village  of  Bran- 
ford  a  few  miles  east  of  New  Haven.  Each  of  the 
worthy  fathers  deposited  a  few  books  upon  the  table 
around  whicli  they  were  sitting ;  such  was  the  founding 
of  Yale  College. 

"  He  that  has  a  spirit  of  detail,"  says  Webster,  "  will 
do  better  in  life  than  many  who  figured  beyond  him  in 
the  university." 

The  pyramid  of  knowledge  is"^  made  up  of  little  grains 
of  information,  little  observations  picked  up  from  every- 
where. 

Eor  a  thousand  years  Asia  monopolized  the  secret  of 
silk  culture,  and  at  Rome  the  product  was  sold  for  its 
weight  in  gold.  During  the  sixth  century,  at  the  request 
of  Justinian,  two  Persian  monks  brought  a  few  eggs 
from  China  to  Europe  in  a  hollow  cane.    The  eggs  were 


284  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

hatched  by  means  of  heat,  and  Asia  no  longer  held  the 
monopoly  of  the  silk  business. 

In  comparison  with  Ferdinand,  preparing  to  lead 
forth  his  magnificent  army  in  Europe's  supreme  con- 
test with  the  Moors,  how  insignificant  seemed  the 
visionary  expedition  of  Columbus,  about  to  start  in  three 
small  shallops  across  the  unknown  ocean.  But  grand 
as  was  the  triumph  of  Ferdinand,  it  now  seems  hardly 
worthy  of  mention  in  comparison  Avith  the  wonderful 
achievement  of  the  poor  Genoese  navigator. 

Only  one  hundred  and  ninety -two  Athenians  perished 
in  the  battle  of  Marathon,  but  Europe  was  saved  from  a 
host  which  is  said  to  have  drunk  rivers  dry,  and  to  have 
shaken  the  solid  earth  as  they  marched. 

Great  men  are  noted  for  their  attention  to  trifles. 
Goethe  once  asked  a  monarch  to  excuse  him,  during 
an  interview,  while  he  went  to  an  adjoining  room  to 
jot  down  a  stray  thought.  Hogarth  would  make 
sketches  of  rare  faces  and  characteristics  upon  his  fin- 
ger-nails upon  the  streets.  Indeed,  to  a  truly  great  mind 
there  are  no  little  things.  "  The  eye  of  the  understand- 
ing is  like  the  eye  of  the  sense  ;  for  as  you  may  see 
objects  through  small  crannies  or  holes,  so  you  may  see 
great  axioms  of  nature  through  small  and  contemptible 
instances,"  said  Bacon.  Trifles  light  as  air  suggest  to  the 
keen  observer  the  solution  of  mighty  problems.  Bits 
of  glass  arranged  to  amuse  children  led  to  the  discovery 
of  the  kaleidoscope.  Goodyear  discovered  how  to  vul- 
canize rubber  by  forgetting,  until  it  became  red  hot,  a 
skillet  containing  a  compound  which  he  had  before  con- 
sidered worthless.  Confined  in  the  house  by  typhoid 
fever,  Helmholtz,  with  a  little  money  which  he  had 
saved  by  great  economy,  bought  a  microscope  which  led 
him  into  the  field  of  science  where  he  became  so  fa- 
mous. A  ship-worm  boring  a  piece  of  wood  suggested 
to  Sir  Isambard  Brunei  the  idea  of  a  tunnel  under  the 
Thames  at  London.     Tracks  of  extinct  animals  in  the 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  285 

old  red  sandstone  led  Hugh  Miller  on  and  on  until  lie 
became  the  greatest  geologist  of  his  time.  Sir  Walter 
Scott  once  saw  a  shepherd  boy  plodding  sturdily  along, 
and  asked  him  to  ride.  This  boy  was  George  Kemp, 
who  became  so  enthusiastic  in  his  study  of  sculpture 
that  he  walked  fifty  miles  and  back  to  see  a  beautiful 
statue.  He  did  not  forget  the  kindness  of  Sir  Walter, 
and,  when  the  latter  died,  threw  his  soul  into  the  design 
of  the  magnificent  monument  erected  in  Edinburgh  to 
the  memory  of  the  author  of  "  Waverley.'' 

A  poor  boy  applied  for  a  situation  at  a  bank  in  Paris, 
but  was  refused.  As  he  left  the  door,  he  picked  up  a 
pin.  The  bank  president  saw  this,  called  the  boy  back, 
and  gave  him  a  situation  from  which  he  rose  until  he 
became  the  greatest  banker  of  Paris,  —  Laffltte. 

It  was  the  turning  point  in  Theodore  Parker's  life 
when  he  picked  up  a  stone  to  throw  at  a  turtle.  Some- 
thing within  him  said,  ^' Don't  do  it,"  and  he  didn't. 
He  went  home  and  asked  his  mother  what  it  was  in 
him  that  said  "  Don't ;  "  and  she  taught  him  the  pur- 
pose of  that  inward  monitor  which  he  ever  after  chose 
as  his  guide.  It  is  said  that  David  Hume  became  a  deist 
by  being  appointed  in  a  debating  society  to  take  the 
side  of  infidelity.  Voltaire  could  not  erase  from  his 
mind  the  impression  of  a  poem  on  infidelity  committed 
at  the  age  of  five.  The  "  Arabian  Nights  "  aroused  the 
genius  of  Coleridge.  A  Massachusetts  soldier  in  the 
Civil  War  observed  a  bird  hulling  rice,  and  shot  it; 
taking  its  bill  for  a  model,  he  invented  a  hulling  ma- 
chine which  has  revolutionized^  the  rice  business.  A 
war  between  France  and  England,  costing  more  than  a 
hundred  thousand  lives,  grew  out  of  a  quarrel  as  to 
which  of  two  vessels  should  first  be  served  with  water. 
The  quarrel  of  two  Indian  boys  over  a  grasshopper  led 
to  the  "  Grasshopper  War."  George  IV.  of  England  fell 
in  a  fit,  and  a  village  apothecary  bled  him,  restoring 
him  to  consciousness.  The  king  made  him  his  physi- 
cian, a  position  of  great  honor  and  profit. 


286  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Many  a  noble  ship  has  stranded  because  of  one  de- 
fective timber,  when  all  other  parts  were  strong.  Guard 
the  weak  point. 

No  object  the  eye  ever  beheld,  no  sound  however 
slight  caught  by  the  ear,  or  anything  once  passing  the 
turnstile  of  any  of  the  senses,  is  ever  let  go.  The  eye 
is  a  perpetual  camera  imprinting  upon  the  sensitive 
mental  plates,  and  packing  away  in  the  brain  for  future 
use  every  face,  every  tree,  every  plant,  flower,  hill, 
stream,  mountain,  every  scene  upon  the  street,  in  fact, 
everything  which  comes  within  its  range.  There  is  a 
phonograph  in  our  natures  which  catches,  hoAvever 
thoughtless  and  transient,  every  syllable  we  utter,  and 
registers  forever  the  slightest  enunciation,  and  renders 
it  immortal.  These  notes  may  appear  a  thousand  years 
hence,  reproduced  in  our  descendants,  in  all  their  beau- 
tiful or  terrible  detail. 

All  the  ages  that  have  been  are  rounded  up  into  the 
small  space  we  call  "  To-day."  Every  life  spans  all 
that  precedes  it.  To-day  is  a  book  which  contains 
everything  that  has  transpired  in  the  world  up  to  the 
present  moment.  The  millions  of  the  past  whose  ashes 
have  mingled  with  the  dust  for  centuries  still  live  in 
their  destinies  through  the  laws  of  heredity. 

Nothing  has  ever  been  lost.  All  the  infinitesimals  of 
the  past  are  amassed  into  the  present. 

The  first  acorn  had  wrapped  up  in  it  all  the  oak  for- 
ests on  the  globe. 

"  Least  of  all  seeds,  greatest  of  all  harvests,"  seems 
to  be  one  of  the  great  laws  of  nature.  All  life  comes 
from  microscopic  beginnings.  In  nature  there  is  no- 
thing small.  The  microscope  reveals  as  great  a  world 
below  as  the  telescope  above.  All  of  nature's  laws 
govern  the  smallest  atoms,  and  a  single  drop  of  water 
is  a  miniature  ocean. 

The  strength  of  a  chain  lies  in  its  weakest  link, 
however  large  and  strong  all  the  others  may  be.     We 


THE  MIGHT  OF  LITTLE   THINGS.  287 

are  all  inclined  to  be  proud  of  our  strong  points,  while 
we  are  sensitive  and  neglectful  of  our  weaknesses.  Yet 
it  is  our  greatest  weakness  which  measures  our  real 
strength.  A  soldier  who  escapes  the  bullets  of  a  thou- 
sand battles  may  die  from  the  scratch  of  a  pin,  and 
many  a  ship  has  survived  the  shocks  of  icebergs  and 
the  storms  of  ocean  only  to  founder  in  a  smooth  sea 
from  holes  made  by  tiny  insects.  Drop  by  drop  is  in- 
stilled into  the  mind  the  poison  which  blasts  many  a 
precious  life. 

How  often  do  we  hear  people  say,  "  Oh,  it 's  only  ten 
minutes,  or  twenty  minutes,  till  dinner  time ;  there 's  no 
use  doing  anything,"  or  use  other  expressions  of  a  like 
effect  ?  Why,  it  is  just  in  these  little  spare  bits  of 
time,  these  odd  moments,  which  most  people  throw 
away,  that  men  who  have  risen  have  gained  their  educa- 
tion, written  their  books,  and  made  themselves  im- 
mortal. 

Small  things  hecome  great  iclien  a  great  soul  sees  them. 
The  noble  or  heroic  act  of  one  man  has  sometimes  ele- 
vated a  nation.  Many  an  honorable  career  has  resulted 
from  a  kind  word  spoken  in  season  or  the  warm  grasp 
of  a  friendly  hand. 

It  is  the  little  rift  within  the  lute, 

That  by  and  by  will  make  the  music  mute, 

And,  ever  widening,  slowly  silence  all. 

Tennyson. 
"  It  was  only  a  glad  '  good-morning,' 
As  she  passed  along  the  way, 
But  it  spread  the  morning's  glory 
Over  the  livelong  day." 

"  Only  a  thought  in  passing  —  a  smile,  or  encouraging  word, 
Has  lifted  many  a  burden  no  other  gift  could  have  stirred. 
Only  !  —  But  then  the  onlys 
Make  up  the  mighty  all." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

SELF-MASTERY. 

Give  me  that  man 
That  is  not  passion's  slave,  and  I  will  wear  him 
In  my  heart's  core,  ay,  in  my  heart  .of  heart. 

Shakespeare. 
Strength  of  character  consists  of  two  things,  —  power  of  will  and  power 
of   self-restraint.    It  requires  two  things,  therefore,  for  its  existence,  — 
strong  feelings  and  strong  command  over  them.  — F.  W.  Robertson. 
"Self-reverence,  self-knowledge,  self-control, 
These  three  alone  lead  life  to  sovereign  power." 

The  bravest  trophy  ever  man  obtained 

Is  that  which  o'er  himself  himself  hath  gained. 

Earl  of  Stirling. 
Real  glory  springs  from  the  conquest  of  ourselves ;  and  without  that  the 
conqueror  is  naught  but  the  veriest  slave.  —  Thomson. 

Whatever  day  makes  man  a  slave  takes  half  his  worth  away. 

Odyssey. 
Chain  up  the  unruly  legion  of  thy  breast.     Lead  thine  own  captivity 
captive,  and  be  Caesar  within  thyself.  —  Thomas  BrowNE. 

He  who  reigns  within  himself,  and  rules  passions,  desires,  and  fears,  is 
more  than  a  king.—  Milton. 

He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty:  and  be  that  ruleth 
his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a  city.  —  Bible. 

Self-trust  is  of  the  essence  of  heroism. —  Emerson. 

Man  who  man  would  be 
Must  rule  the  empire  of  himself. 

P.  B.  Shelley. 

"  Ah  !  Diamond,  you  little  know  tlie  mischief  you 
have  wrought,"  said  Sir  Isaac  Xewton,  returning  from 
supper  to  find  that  his  dog  had  upset  a  lighted  taper 
upon  the  laborious  calculations  of  years,  which  lay  in 
ashes  before  him.  Then  he  went  calmly  to  work  to 
reproduce  them.     The  man  who  thus  excelled  in  self- 


JAMES    RUSSELL    LOWELL 
We  rise  by  the  things  that  are  under  our  feet : 
By  what  we  liave  mastered  of  good  or  gain  : 
By  the  pride  deposed  and  tlie  passion  slain, 
And  the  vanquished  ills  that  we  hourly  meet." 


SELF-MASTERY.  289 

mastery  surpassed  all  his  predecessors  and  contempo- 
raries in  mastering  the  laws  of  nature. 

The  sun  was  high  in  the  heavens  when  a  man  called 
at  the  house  of  Pericles  to  abuse  him.  The  man's  an- 
ger knew  no  bounds.  He  vented  his  spite  in  violent 
language  until  he  paused  from  sheer  exhaustion,  and 
saw  that  it  was  quite  dark  without.  He  turned  to  go 
home,  when  Pericles  calmly  called  a  servant,  and  said, 
"  Bring  a  lamp  and  attend  this  man  home."  Is  any 
argument  needed  to  show  the  superiority  of  Pericles  ? 

The  gladiators  who  were  trained  to  fight  in  the  Coli- 
seum were  compelled  to  practice  the  most  graceful 
postures  of  falling  and  the  finest  attitudes  to  assume  in 
dying,  in  case  they  were  vanquished.  They  were  obliged 
to  eat  food  which  would  make  the  blood  thick  in  order 
that  they  should  not  die  quickly  when  wounded,  thus 
giving  the  spectators  prolonged  gratification  by  the 
spectacle  of  their  agonies.  Each  had  to  take  this 
oath  :  "  We  swear  that  we  will  suffer  ourselves  to  be 
bound,  scourged,  burned,  or  killed  by  the  sword,  or 
whatever  Eumolpus  ordains,  and  thus,  like  freeborn 
gladiators,  we  religiously  devote  both  our  souls  and  our 
bodies  to  our  master."  They  were  trained  to  exercise 
sublime  self-control  even  when  dying  a  cruel  death. 

The  American  Minister  at  St.  Petersburg  was  sum- 
moned one  morning  to  save  a  young,  dissolute,  reckless 
American  youth,  Poe,  from  the  penalties  incurred  in  a 
drunken  debauch.  By  the  Minister's  aid  young  Poe  re- 
turned to  the  United  States.  Not  long  after  this  the 
author  of  the  best  story  and  poem  competed  for  in  the 
"  Baltimore  Visitor  "  was  sent  for,  and  behold,  the  youth 
who  had  taken  both  prizes  was  that  same  dissolute, 
reckless,  penniless,  orphan  youth,  who  had  been  arrested 
in  St.  Petersburg,  —  pale,  ragged,  with  no  stockings, 
and  with  his  threadbare  but  well  brushed  coat  buttoned 
to  the  chin  to  conceal  the  lack  of  a  shirt.  Young  Poe 
took  fresh   courage  and   resolution,   and   for   a  while 


290  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

showed  that  he  was  superior  to  the  appetite  which  was 
striving  to  drag  him  down.  But,  alas,  that  fatal  bot- 
tle !  his  mind  was  stored  with  riches,  yet  he  died  in 
moral  poverty.     This  was  a  soldier's  epitaph  :  — 

"Here  lies  a  soldier  whom  all  must  applaud, 
Who  fought  many  battles  at  liome  and  abroad: 
But  the  hottest  engagement  he  ever  was  in, 
Was  the  conquest  of  self,  in  the  battle  of  sin." 

In  1860,  when  a  committee  visited  Abraham  Lincoln 
at  his  home  in  Springfield,  111.,  to  notify  him  of  his 
nomination  as  President,  he  ordered  a  pitcher  of  water 
and  glasses,  "  that  they  might  drink  each  other's  health 
in  the  best  beverage  God  ever  gave  to  man."  "  Let  us," 
he  continued,  "make  it  as  unfashionable  to  withhold  our 
names  from  the  teuiperance  pledge  as  for  husbands  to 
wear  their  wives'  bonnets  in  church,  and  instances  will 
be  as  rare  in  one  case  as  the  other." 

Burns  exercised  no  control  over  his  appetites,  but 
gave  them  the  rein  :  — 

"  Thus  thoughtless  follies  laid  him  low 
And  stained  his  name." 

"  The  first  and  best  of  victories,"  says  Plato,  "  is  for  a 
man  to  conquer  himself ;  to  be  conquered  by  himself  is, 
of  all  things,  the  most  shameful  and  vile." 

Self-control  is  at  the  root  of  all  the  virtues.  Let  a 
man  yield  to  his  impulses  and  passions,  and  from  that 
moment  he  gives  up  his  moral  freedom. 

"  Teach  self-denial  and  make  its  practice  pleasurable," 
says  Walter  Scott,  "  and  you  create  for  the  Avorld  a 
destiny  more  sublime  than  ever  issued  from  the  brain 
of  the  wildest  dreamer." 

Stonewall  Jackson,  early  in  life,  determined  to  con- 
quer every  weakness  he  had,  physical,  mental,  and 
moral.  He  held  all  of  his  powers  with  a  firm  hand. 
To  his  great  self-discipline  and  self-mastery  he  owed 
his  success.  So  determined  was  he  to  harden  himself 
to  the  weather  that  he  could  not  be  induced  to  wear  an 


SELF-MASTERY.  291 

overcoat  in  winter.  ''  I  will  not  give  in  to  tlie  cold,"  lie 
said.  For  a  year,  on  account  of  dyspepsia,  lie  lived  on 
buttermilk  and  stale  bread,  and  wore  a  wet  shirt  next 
his  body  because  his  doctor  advised  it,  although  every- 
body else  ridiculed  the  idea.  This  was  while  he  was 
professor  at  the  Virginia  Military  Institute.  His  doc- 
tor advised  him  to  retire  at  nine  o'clock ;  and,  no  mat- 
ter where  he  was,  or  who  was  present,  he  always  sought 
his  bed  on  the  minute.  He  adhered  rigidly  through  life 
to  this  stern  system  of  discipline.  Such  self -training, 
such  self-conquest,  gives  one  great  power  over  others. 
It  is  equal  to  genius  itself. 

It  is  a  good  plan  to  form  the  habit  of  ranking  our 
various  qualities,  marking  our  strongest  point  one  hun- 
dred and  all  the  others  in  proportion,  in  order  to  make 
the  lowest  mark  more  apparent,  and  enabling  us  to  try 
to  raise  or  strengthen  it.  A  man's  industry,  for  ex- 
ample, may  be  his  strongest  point,  one  hundred  ;  his 
physical  courage  may  be  fifty ;  his  moral  courage,  sev- 
enty-five ;  his  temper,  twenty-five ;  with  but  ten  for 
self-control,  —  which,  if  he  has  strong  appetites  and  pas- 
sions, will  be  likely  to  be  the  rock  on  which  he  will 
split.  He  should  strive  in  every  way  to  raise  it  from 
one  of  the  weakest  qualities  to  one  of  the  strongest. 
It  would  take  but  two  or  three  minutes  a  day  to  rank 
ourselves  in  such  a  table  by  noting  the  exercise  of  each 
faculty  for  the  day.  If  you  have  worked  hard  and 
faithfully,  mark  industry  one  hundred.  If  you  have 
lost  your  temper,  and,  in  consequence,  lost  your  self- 
control,  and  made  a  fool  of  yourself,  indicate  it  by  a  low 
mark.  This  will  be  an  incentive  to  try  to  raise  it  the 
next  day.  If  you  have  been  irritable,  indicate  it  by  a 
corresponding  mark,  and  redeem  yourself  on  the  mor- 
row. If  you  have  been  cowardly  where  you  should 
have  been  brave,  hesitating  where  you  should  have 
shown  decision,  false  where  you  should  have  been  true, 
foolish  where  you  should  have  been  wise,  tardy  where 


292  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

you  should  have  been  prompt ;  if  you  have  prevaricated 
where  you  should  have  told  the  exact  truth;  if  you  have 
taken  the  advantage  where  you  should  have  been  fair, 
have  been  unjust  where  you  should  have  been  just,  im- 
patient where  you  should  have  been  patient,  cross  where 
you  should  have  been  cheerful,  so  indicate  by  your 
marks.  You  will  find  this  a  great  aid  to  character 
building. 

It  is  a  subtle  and  profound  remark  of  Hegel's  that 
the  riddle  which  the  Sphinx,  the  Egyptian  symbol  of 
the  mysteriousness  of  Nature,  propounds  to  CEdipus  is 
only  another  way  of  expressing  the  command  of  the 
Delphic  oracle,  "Know  thyself.^'  And  when  the  an- 
swer is  given  the  Sphinx  casts  herself  down  from  her 
rock.  When  man  knows  himself,  the  mysteriousness 
of  Nature  and  her  terrors  vanish. 

The  command  by  the  ancient  oracle  at  Delphos  is  of 
eternal  significance.  Add  to  it  its  natural  complement 
' —  Help  thyself  —  and  the  path  to  success  is  open  to 
those  who  obey. 

Guard  your  tveak  point.  Moral  contagion  borrows 
fully  half  its  strength  from  the  weakness  of  its  victims. 
Have  you  a  hot,  passionate  temper  ?  If  so,  a  moment's 
outbreak,  like  a  rat-hole  in  a  dam,  may  flood  all  the 
work  of  years.  One  angry  word  sometimes  raises  a 
storm  that  time  itself  cannot  allay.  A  single  angry 
word  has  lost  many  a  friend. 

A  Quaker  was  asked  by  a  merchant  whom  he  had 
conquered  by  his  patience  how  he  had  been  able  to  bear 
the  other's  abuse,  and  replied :  "  Friend,  I  will  tell  thee. 
I  was  naturally  as  hot  and  violent  as  thou  art.  I  ob- 
served that  men  in  a  passion  always  speak  loud,  and  I 
thought  if  I  could  control  my  voice  I  should  repress  my 
passion.  I  have  therefore  made  it  a  rule  never  to  let 
my  voice  rise  above  a  certain  key,  and  by  a  careful  ob- 
servance of  this  rule,  I  have,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
entirely  mastered  my  natural  tongue."     Mr.  Christmas 


SELF-MASTERY.  293 

of  the  Bank  of  England  Explains  that  the  secret  of  his 
self-control  under  very  trying  circumstances  was  due  to 
a  rule  learned  from  the  great  Pitt,  never  to  lose  his  tem- 
per during  banking  hours  from  nine  to  three. 

When  Socrates  found  in  himself  any  disposition  to 
anger,  he  would  check  it  by  speaking  low,  in  opposition 
to  the  motions  of  his  displeasure.  If  you  are  conscious 
of  being  in  a  passion,  keep  your  mouth  shut,  lest  you 
increase  it.  Many  a  person  has  dropped  dead  in  a 
rage.  Fits  of  anger  bring  fits  of  disease.  ''  Whom  the 
gods  would  destroy  they  first  make  mad."  "Keep 
cool,"  says  Webster,  "anger  is  not  argument."  "Be 
calm  in  arguing,"  says  George  Herbert,  "  for  fierceness 
makes  error  a  fault,  and  truth  discourtesy." 

To  be  angry  with  a  weak  man  is  to  prove  that  you 
are  not  strong  yourself.  "  Anger,"  says  Pythagoras, 
"begins  with  folly  and  ends  with  repentance."  You 
must  measure  the  strength  of  a  man  by  the  power  of 
the  feelings  he  subdues,  not  by  the  power  of  those 
which  subdue  him. 

De  Leon,  a  distinguished  Spanish  poet,  after  lying 
years  in  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition,  dreary,  and  alone, 
without  light,  for  translating  part  of  the  Scriptures 
into  his  native  tongue,  was  released  and  restored  to 
his  professorship.  A  great  crowd  thronged  to  hear  his 
first  lecture,  out  of  curiosity  to  learn  what  he  might  say 
about  his  imprisonment.  But  the  great  man  merely  re- 
sumed the  lecture  which  had  been  so  cruelly  broken  off 
five  years  before,  just  where  he  left  it,  with  the  words 
"Heri  discebamus "  (Yesterday  we  were  teaching). 
What  a  lesson  in  this  remarkable  example  of  self-con- 
trol for  those  who  allow  their  tongues  to  jabber  what- 
ever happens  to  be  uppermost  in  their  minds  ! 

Did  you  ever  see  a  man  receive  a  flagrant  insult,  and 
only  grow  a  little  pale,  bite  his  quivering  lip,  and  then 
reply  quietly  ?  Did  you  ever  see  a  man  in  anguish 
stand  as  if  carved  out  of  solid  rock,  mastering  himself  ? 


294  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Have  you  not  seen  one  bearing  a  hopeless  daily  trial  re- 
main silent  and  never  tell  the  world  what  cankered  his 
home  peace  ?  That  is  strength.  "  He  who,  with  strong 
passions,  remains  chaste;  he  who,  keenly  sensitive, 
with  manly  power  of  indignation  in  him,  can  be  pro- 
voked, and  yet  restrain  himself  and  forgive, — these 
are  strong  men,  the  spiritual  heroes." 

"  You  will  be  remembered  only  as  the  man  who  broke 
my  nose,"  said  young  Michael  Angelo  to  the  man  Torri- 
giano,  who  struck  him  in  anger.  What  sublime  self- 
control  for  a  quick-tempered  man  ! 

"  You  ask  whether  it  would  not  be  manly  to  resent 
a  great  injury,"  said  Eardley  Wilmot :  "  I  answer  that 
it  would  be  manly  to  resent  it,  but  it  would  be  Godlike 
to  forgive  it." 

That  man  has  conquered  his  tongue  who  can  allow 
the  ribald  jest  or  scurrilous  word  to  die  unspoken  on 
his  lips,  and  maintain  an  indignant  silence  amid  re- 
proaches and  accusations  and  sneers  and  scoffs.  "  He 
is  a  fool  who  cannot  be  angry,"  says  English,  "  but  he 
is  a  wise  man  w^ho  will  not." 

Peter  the  Great  made  a  law  in  1722  that  a  nobleman 
who  should  beat  his  slave  should  be  regarded  as  insane, 
and  a  guardian  appointed  to  look  after  his  property  and 
person.  This  great  monarch  once  struck  his  gardener, 
who  took  to  his  bed  and  died.  Peter,  hearing  of  this, 
exclaimed  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  "  Alas  !  I  have  civil- 
ized my  own  subjects  ;  I  have  conquered  other  nations  ; 
yet  have  I  not  been  able  to  civilize  or  conquer  myself." 
The  same  monarch,  when  drunk,  rushed  upon  Admiral 
Le  Fort  with  a  sword.  Le  Fort,  with  great  self-posses- 
sion, bared  his  breast  to  receive  the  stroke.  This  so- 
bered Peter,  and  afterwards  he  asked  the  pardon  of  Le 
Fort.  Peter  said,  "  I  am  trying  to  reform  my  country, 
and  I  am  not  yet  able  to  reform  myself."  Self-con- 
quest is  man's  last  and  greatest  victory. 

A  medical  authority  of  highest  repute  affirms  that 


SELF-MASTERY.  295 

excessive  labor,  exposure  to  wet  and  cold,  deprivation 
of  sufficient  quantities  of  necessary  and  wholesome 
food,  habitual  bad  lodging,  sloth  and  intemperance,  are 
all  deadly  enemies  to  human  life,  but  they  are  none  of 
them  so  bad  as  violent  and  ungoverned  passion,  —  that 
men  and  women  have  frequently  lived  to  an  advanced 
age  in  spite  of  these,  but  that  instances  are  very  rare 
where  people  of  irascible  tempers  live  to  extreme  old  age. 

It  was  the  self-discipline  of  a  man  who  had  never 
looked  upon  war  until  he  was  forty  that  enabled  Oliver 
Cromwell  to  create  an  army  which  never  fought  without 
annihilating,  yet  which  retired  into  the  ranks  of  indus- 
try as  soon  as  the  government  was  established,  each 
soldier  being  distinguished  from  his  neighbors  only  by 
his  superior  diligence,  sobriety,  and  regularity  in  the 
pursuits  of  peace. 

How  sweet  the  serenity  of  habitual  self-command ! 
When  does  a  man  feel  more  a  master  of  himself  than 
when  he  has  passed  through  a  sudden  and  severe  provo- 
cation in  silence  or  in  undisturbed  good  humor  ? 

Whether  teaching  the  rules  of  an  exact  morality,  an- 
swering his  corrupt  judges,  receiving  sentence  of  death, 
or  swallowing  the  poison,  Socrates  was  still  calm,  quiet, 
undisturbed,  intrepid. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  brains,  but  it  is  vastly 
greater  to  be  able  to  command  them.  The  Duke  of 
Wellington  had  great  power  over  himself,  although  his 
natural  temper  was  extremely  irritable.  He  remained 
at  the  Duchess  of  Eichmond's  ball  till  about  three 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  16th  of  June,  1815, 
"  showing  himself  very  cheerful,"  although  he  knew 
that  a  desperate  battle  was  awaiting  him.  On  the  field 
of  Waterloo  he  gave  his  orders  at  the  most  critical  mo- 
ments without  the  slightest  excitement. 

jSTapoleon,  having  made  his  arrangements  for  the  ter- 
rible conflict  of  the  next  day  (Jena  and  Auerstadt),  re- 
tired to  his  tent  about  midnight,  and  calmly  sat  down  to 


296  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

draw  up  a  plan  of  study  and  discipline  for  Madame 
Campan's  female  school.  "  Keep  cool,  and  you  com- 
mand everybody/^  says  St.  Just. 

"  He  that  would  govern  others  first  should  be 
The  master  of  hunself," 

says  Massinger. 

He  who  has  mastered  himself,  who  is  his  own  Caesar, 
will  be  stronger  than  his  passion,  superior  to  circum- 
stances, higher  than  his  calling,  greater  than  his  speech. 
Self-control  is  the  generalship  which  turns  a  mob  of  raw 
recruits  into  a  disciplined  army.  The  rough  man  has 
become  the  polished  and  dignified  soldier;  in  other 
words,  the  man  has  got  control  of  himself,  and  knows 
how  to  use  himself.  The  human  race  is  under  constant 
drill.  Our  occupations,  difficulties,  obstacles,  disap- 
pointments, if  used  aright,  are  the  great  schoolmasters 
which  help  us  to  possess  ourselves.  The  man  who  is 
master  of  himself  will  not  be  a  slave  to  drudgery,  but 
will  keep  in  advance  of  his  work.  He  will  not  rob  his 
family  of  that  which  is  worth  more  than  money  or  posi- 
tion ;  he  will  not  be  the  slave  of  his  occupation,  not  at 
the  mercy  of  circumstances.  His  methods  and  system 
will  enable  him  to  accomplish  wonders,  and  yet  give 
him  leisure  for  self-culture.  The  man  who  controls 
himself  works  to  live  rather  than  lives  for  work. 

The  man  of  great  self-control,  the  man  who  thinks  a 
great  deal  and  says  little,  who  is  self-centred,  well  bal- 
anced, carries  a  thousand  times  more  weight  than  the 
man  of  weak  will,  always  wavering  and  undecided. 

If  a  man  lacks  self-control  he  seems  to  lack  every- 
thing. Without  it  he  can  have  no  patience,  no  power 
to  govern  himself ;  he  can  have  no  self-reliance,  for  he 
will  always  be  at  the  mercy  of  his  strongest  passion. 
If  he  lacks  self-control,  the  very  backbone,  pith,  and 
nerve  of  character  are  lacking  also. 

The  discipline  which  is  the  main  end  in  education  is 
simply  control  acquired  over   one's   mental  faculties  ; 


SELF-MASTERY.  297 

witliont  this  discipline  no  man  is  a  strong  and  accurate 
thinker.  "  Prove  to  me/'  says  Mrs.  Oliphant,  "  that  you 
can  control  yourself,  and  I  '11  say  you  're  an  educated 
man ;  and,  without  this,  all  other  education  is  good  for 
next  to  nothing." 

The  wife  of  Socrates,  Xanthippe,  was  a  woman  of  a 
most  fantastical  and  furious  spirit.  At  one  time,  hav- 
ing vented  all  the  reproaches  upon  Socrates  her  fury 
could  suggest,  he  went  out  and  sat  before  the  door.  His 
calm  and  unconcerned  behavior  but  irritated  her  so 
much  the  more  ;  and,  in  the  excess  of  her  rage,  she  ran 
upstairs  and  emptied  a  vessel  upon  his  head,  at  which 
he  only  laughed  and  said  that  "  so  much  thunder  must 
needs  produce  a  shower."  Alcibiades  his  friend,  talking 
with  him  about  his  wife,  told  him  he  wondered  how  he 
could  bear  such  an  everlasting  scold  in  the  same  house 
with  him.  He  replied,  "  I  have  so  accustomed  myself 
to  expect  it,  that  it  now  offends  me  no  more  than  the 
noise  of  carriages  in  the  street." 

How  many  men  have  in  their  chain  of  character  one 
weak  link.  They  may  be  weak  in  the  link  of  truthful- 
ness, politeness,  trustworthiness,  temper,  chastity,  tem- 
perance, courage,  industry,  or  may  have  some  other 
weakness  which  wrecks  their  success  and  thwarts  a 
life's  endeavor.  He  who  would  succeed  must  hold  all 
his  faculties  under  perfect  control ;  they  must  be  dis- 
ciplined, drilled,  until  they  obey  the  will. 

Think  of  a  young  man  just  starting  out  in  life  to  con- 
quer the  world  being  at  the  mercy  of  his  own  appetites 
and  passions  !  He  cannot  stand  up  and  look  the  world 
in  the  face  when  he  is  the  slave  of  what  should  be  his 
own  servants.  He  cannot  lead  who  is  led.  There  is 
nothing  which  gives  certainty  and  direction  to  the  life 
of  a  man  who  is  not  his  own  master.  If  he  has  mas- 
tered all  but  one  appetite,  passion,  or  weakness,  he  is 
still  a  slave ;  it  is  the  weakest  point  that  measures  the 
strength  of  character. 


298  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Seneca,  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  ancient  philoso- 
phers, said  that  "  we  should  every  night  call  ourselves 
to  account.  What  infirmity  have  I  mastered  to-day  ? 
what  passion  opposed?  what  temptation  resisted  ?  what 
virtue  acquired  ?  "  and  then  he  follows  with  the  pro- 
found truth  that  "  our  vices  will  abate  of  themselves  if 
they  be  brought  every  day  to  the  shrift."  If  you  can- 
not at  first  control  your  anger,  learn  to  control  your 
tongue,  which,  like  fire,  is  a  good  servant,  but  a  hard 
master. 

Five  words  cost  Zacharias  forty  weeks'  silence. 
There  is  many  a  man  whose  tongue  might  govern  multi- 
tudes if  he  could  only  govern  his  tongue.  Anger,  like 
too  much  wine,  hides  us  from  ourselves,  but  exposes  us 
to  others. 

General  von  Moltke,  perhaps  the  greatest  strategist 
of  this  century,  had,  as  a  foundation  for  his  other  tal- 
ents, the  power  to  "  hold  his  tongue  in  seven  languages." 
A  young  man  went  to  Socrates  to  learn  oratory.  On 
being  introduced,  he  talked  so  incessantly  that  Socrates 
asked  for  double  fees.  '^  Why  charge  me  double  ? " 
asked  the  young  fellow.  "Because,"  said  the  orator, 
"  I  must  teach  you  two  sciences :  the  one  how  to  hold 
your  tongue,  the  other  how  to  speak."  The  first  is  the 
more  difficult. 

Half  the  actual  trouble  of  life  would  be  saved  if  peo- 
ple would  remember  that  silence  is  golden,  when  they 
are  irritated,  vexed,  or  annoyed. 

To  feel  provoked  or  exasperated  at  a  trifle,  when  the 
nerves  are  exhausted,  is,  perhaps,  natural  to  us  in  our 
imperfect  state.  But  why  put  into  the  shape  of  speech 
the  annoyance  which,  once  uttered,  is  remembered ; 
which  may  burn  like  a  blistering  wound,  or  rankle  like 
a  poisoned  arrow  ?  If  a  child  be  crying  or  a  friend 
capricious,  or  a  servant  unreasonable,  be  careful  what 
you  say.  Do  not  speak  while  you  feel  the  impulse  of 
anger,  for  you  vrill  be  almost  certain  to  say  too  much,  to 


SELF-MASTERY.  299 

say  more  than  your  cooler  judgment  will  approve,  and 
to  speak  in  a  way  that  you  will  regret.  Be  silent  until 
the  "  sweet  by  and  by,"  when  you  will  be  calm,  rested, 
and  self-controlled. 

"  Seest  thou  a  man  that  is  hasty  in  his  words  ?  There 
is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  of  him." 

"  Silence,"  says  Zimmerman,  "  is  the  safest  response 
for  all  the  contradiction  that  arises  from  impertinence, 
vulgarity,  or  envy." 

In  rhetoric,  as  Emerson  truly  says,  this  art  of  omis- 
sion is  the  chief  secret  of  power.  "  Everything  tells  in 
favor  of  the  man  who  talks  but  little.  The  presumption 
is  that  he  is  a  superior  man  ;  and  if,  in  point  of  fact,  he 
is  not  a  sheer  blockhead,  the  presumption  then  is  that 
he  is  very  superior  indeed."  Grant  was  master  of  the 
science  of  silence. 

The  self-controlled  are  self-possessed.  "  Sir,  the  house 
is  on  fire  ! "  shrieked  a  frightened  servant,  running  into 
Dr.  Lawson's  study.  "  Go  and  tell  your  mistress,"  said 
the  preoccupied  professor,  without  looking  up  from  the 
book  he  was  reading  ;  "  you  know  I  have  no  charge  of 
household  matters."  A  woman  whose  house  was  on  fire 
threw  a  looking-glass  out  of  the  window,  and  carried  a 
pair  of  andirons  several  rods  to  a  safe  place  beside  a 
stone  wall.  '^  Presence  of  mind  and  courage  in  distress 
are  more  than  armies  to  procure  success." 

Xenophon  tells  us  that  at  one  time  the  Persian 
princes  had  for  their  teachers  the  four  best  men  in  the 
kingdom.  (1)  The  wisest  man  to  teach  wisdom.  (2) 
The  bravest  to  teach  courage.  ^  (3)  The  most  just  to 
train  the  moral  nature.  (4)  The  most  temperate  to 
teach  self-control.  We  have  them  all  in  the  Bible,  and 
in  Christ  our  teacher,  an  example.  "If  it  is  a  small 
sacrifice  to  discontinue  the  use  of  wine,"  said  Samuel  J. 
May,  "  do  it  for  the  sake  of  others  ;  if  it  is  a  great  sac- 
rifice, do  it  for  your  own  sake."  How  many  of  nature's 
noblemen,  who  might  be  kings   if   they   could   control 


300  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

themselves,  drink  away  their  honor,  reputation,  and 
money  in  glasses  of  "wet  damnation,"  more  costly  than 
the  vinegar  in  which  Cleopatra  dissolved  her  pearls. 

Experience  shows  that,  quicker  than  almost  any  other 
physical  agency,  alcohol  breaks  down  a  man's  power  of 
self-control.  But  the  physical  evils  of  intemperance, 
great  as  they  are,  are  slight,  compared  with  the  moral 
injury  it  produces.  It  is  not  simply  that  vices  and 
crimes  almost  inevitably  follow  the  loss  of  rational  self- 
direction,  which  is  the  invariable  accompaniment  of  in- 
toxication ;  manhood  is  lowered  and  finally  lost  by  the 
sensual  tyranny  of  appetite.  The  drunken  man  has 
given  up  the  reins  of  his  nature  to  a  fool  or  a  fiend, 
and  he  is  driven  fast  to  base  or  unutterably  foolish  ends. 

With  almost  palsied  hand,  at  a  temperance  meeting, 
John  B.  Gough  signed  the  pledge.  For  six  days  and 
nights  in  a  wretched  garret,  without  a  mouthful  of  food, 
with  scarcely  a  moment's  sleep,  he  fought  the  fearful 
battle  with  appetite.  Weak,  famished,  almost  dying,  he 
crawled  into  the  sunlight ;  but  he  had  conquered  the 
demon  which  had  almost  killed  him.  Gough  used  to 
describe  the  struggles  of  a  man  who  tried  to  leave  off 
using  tobacco.  He  threw  away  what  he  had,  and  said 
that  was  the  end  of  it ;  but  no,  it  was  only  the  begin- 
ning of  it.  He  would  chew  camomile,  gentian,  tooth- 
picks, but  it  was  of  no  use.  He  bought  another  plug  of 
tobacco  and  put  it  in  his  pocket.  He  wanted  a  chew 
awfully,  but  he  looked  at  it  and  said,  "  You  are  a  weed, 
and  I  am  a  man.  I  '11  master  you  if  I  die  for  it ;  "  and 
he  did,  while  carrying  it  in  his  pocket  daily. 

Natural  appetites,  if  given  rein,  will  not  only  grow 
monstrous  and  despotic,  but  artificial  apx:>etites  will  be 
created  which,  like  a  ghastly  Frankenstein,  develop  a 
kind  of  independent  life  and  force,  and  then  turn  on 
their  creator  to  torment  him  without  pity,  and  will 
mock  his  efforts  to  free  himself  from  this  slavery.  The 
victim  of  strong  drink  is  one  of  the  most  pitiable  crea- 


SELF-MASTERY.  301 

tures  on  earth  ;  he  becomes  half  beast,  or  half  demon. 
Oh,  the  silent,  suffering  tongues  that  whisper  "  Don't," 
but  the  will  lies  prostrate,  and  the  debauch  goes  on. 
What  a  mute  confession  of  degradation  there  is  in  the 
very  appearance  of  a  confirmed  sot.  Behold  a  man  no 
longer  in  possession  of  himself ;  the  flesh  is  master  ; 
the  spiritual  nature  is  sunk  in  the  mire  of  sensuality ; 
and  the  mental  faculties  are  a  mere  mob  of  enfeebled 
powers  under  bondage  to  a  bestial  or  mad  tyrant.  As 
Challis  says :  — 

''  Once  the  demon  enters, 
Stands  within  the  door; 
Peace  and  hope  and  gladness 
Dwell  there  nevermore." 

Many  persons  are  intemperate  in  their  feelings ;  they 
are  emotionally  prodigal.  Passion  is  intemperance  ;  so 
is  caprice.  There  is  an  intemperance  even  in  melan- 
choly and  mirth.  The  temperate  man  is  not  mastered 
by  his  moods  ;  he  will  not  be  driven  or  enticed  into  ex- 
cess ;  his  steadfast  will  conquers  despondency,  and  is 
not  unbalanced  by  transient  exhilarations,  for  ecstasy  is 
as  fatal  as  despair.  Temper  is  subjected  to  reason  and 
conscience.  How  many  people  excuse  themselves  for 
doing  wrong  or  foolish  acts  by  the  plea  that  they  have 
a  quick  temper.  But  he  who  is  king  of  himself  rules 
his  temper,  turning  its  very  heat  and  passion  into  en- 
ergy that  works  good  instead  of  evil.  Stephen  Girard, 
when  he  heard  of  a  clerk  with  a  strong  temper,  was  glad 
to  employ  him.  He  believed  that  such  persons,  taught 
self-control,  were  the  best  workers.  Controlled  temper 
is  an  element  of  strength  ;  wisely  regulated,  it  expends 
itself  as  energy  in  work,  just  as  heat  in  an  engine  is 
transmuted  into  force  that  drives  the  wheels  of  in- 
dustry. Cromwell,  William  the  Silent,  Wordsworth, 
Faraday,  Washington,  and  Wellington  were  men  of 
prodigious  tempers,  but  they  were  also  men  whose 
self-control  was  nearly  perfect. 


302  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

George  AVasliington's  faculties  were  so  well  balanced 
and  combined  that  his  constitution  was  tempered  evenly 
with  all  the  elements  of  activity,  and  his  mind  resem- 
bled a  well  organized  commonwealth.  His  passions, 
which  had  the  intensest  vigor,  owed  allegiance  to  rea- 
son ;  and  with  all  the  fiery  quickness  of  his  spirit,  his 
impetuous  and  massive  will  was  held  in  check  by  con- 
summate judgment.  He  had  in  his  composition  a  calm 
which  was  a  balance-wheel,  and  which  gave  him  in  mo- 
ments of  highest  excitement  the  power  of  self-control, 
and  enabled  him  to  excel  in  patience,  even  when  he  had 
most  cause  for  disgust. 

It  was  said  by  an  enemy  of  AYilliam  the  Silent  that 
an  arrogant  or  indiscreet  word  never  fell  from  his  lips. 

How  brilliantly  could  Carlyle  write  of  heroism,  cour- 
age, self-control,  and  yet  fly  into  a  rage  at  a  rooster 
crowing  in  a  neighbor's  yard. 

A  self-controlled  mind  is  a  free  mind,  and  freedom  is 
power. 

''  I  call  that  mind  free,"  says  Channing,  "  which 
jealously  guards  its  intellectual  rights  and  powers, 
which  calls  no  man  master,  which  does  not  content  it- 
self with  a  passive  or  hereditary  faith,  which  opens 
itself  to  light  whencesoever  it  may  come,  which  receives 
new  truth  as  an  angel  from  heaven,  which,  whilst  con- 
sulting otliers,  inquires  still  more  of  the  oracle  within 
itself,  and  uses  instructions  from  abroad,  not  to  super- 
sede, but  to  quicken  and  exalt  its  own  energies.  I  call 
that  mind  free  which  is  not  passively  framed  by  out- 
ward circumstances,  which  is  not  swept  away  by  the 
torrent  of  events,  which  is  not  the  creature  of  acciden- 
tal impulse,  but  which  bends  events  to  its  own  im- 
provement, and  acts  from  an  inward  spring,  from 
immutable  principles  which  it  has  deliberately  es- 
poused. I  call  that  mind  free  which  protects  itself 
against  the  usurpations  of  society,  which  does  not  cower 
to  human  opinion,  which  feels  itself  accountable  to  a 


SELF-MASTERY.  303 

higher  tribunal  than  man's,  which  resj^ects  a  higher  law 
than  fashion,  which  respects  itself  too  much  to  be  the 
slave  or  tool  of  the  many  or  the  few.  I  call  that  mind 
free  which  through  confidence  in  God  and  in  the  power 
of  virtue  has  cast  off  all  fear  but  that  of  wrong-doing, 
which  no  menace  or  jjeril  can  enthrall,  which  is  calm  in 
the  midst  of  tumults,  and  possesses  itself  though  all 
else  be  lost.  1  call  that  mind  free  which  resists  the 
bondage  of  habit,  which  does  not  mechanically  repeat 
itself  and  copy  the  past,  which  does  not  live  on  its  old 
virtues,  which  does  not  enslave  itself  to  precise  rules, 
but  which  forgets  what  is  behind,  listens  for  new  and 
higher  monitions  of  conscience,  and  rejoices  to  pour  it- 
self forth  in  fresh  and  higher  exertions.  I  call  that 
mind  free  which  is  jealous  of  its  own  freedom,  which 
guards  itself  from  being  merged  in  others,  which  guards 
its  empire  over  itself  as  nobler  than  the  empire  of  the 
world." 

Be  free  —  not  chiefly  from  the,iron  chain 

But  from  the  one  which  pas--ion  forges  —  be 

The  master  of  thyself.     If  lost,  regain 

The  rule  o'er  chance,  sense,  circumstance.    Be  free. 

Ephuaim  Peabodv. 

"  It  is  not  enough  to  have  great  qualities,"  saj-s  La 
Kochefoucauld ;  '•  we  should  also  have  the  management 
of  them."  Xo  man  can  call  himself  educated  until 
every  voluntary  muscle  obeys  his  will. 

Every  human  being  is  conscious  of  two  natures. 
One  is  ever  reaching  up  after  the  good,  the  true,  and  the 
noble, — is  aspiring  after  all  that  uplifts,  elevates,  and 
jjurifies.  It  is  the  God-side  of  man,  the  image  of  the 
Creator,  the  immortal  side,  the  spiritual  side.  It  is  the 
gravitation  of  the  soul  faculties  toward  their  Maker. 
The  other  is  the  bestial  side  which  gravitates  down- 
ward. It  does  not  asjjire,  it  grovels  ;  it  wallows  in  the 
mire  of  sensualism.  Like  the  beast,  it  knows  but  one 
law,  and  is   led  by  only  one   motive,    self-indulgence, 


304  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

self-gratification.  When  neither  hungry  nor  thirsty, 
or  when  gorged  and  sated  by  over-indulgence,  it  lies 
quiet  and  peaceful  as  a  lamb,  and  we  sometimes  think 
it  subdued.  But  when  its  imperious  passion  accumu- 
lates, it  clamors  for  satisfaction.  You  cannot  reason 
with  it,  for  it  has  no  reason,  only  an  imperious  instinct 
for  gratification.  You  cannot  appeal  to  its  self-respect, 
for  it  has  none.  It  cares  nothing  for  character,  for 
manliness,  for  the  spiritual. 

These  two  natures  are  ever  at  war,  one  pulling 
heavenward,  the  other,  earthward.  Nor  do  they  ever 
become  reconciled.  Either  may  conquer,  but  the  van- 
quished never  submits.  The  higher  nature  may  be 
compelled  to  grovel,  to  wallow  in  the  mire  of  sensual 
indulgence,  but  it  always  rebels  and  enters  its  protest. 
It  can  never  forget  that  it  bears  the  image  of  its  Maker, 
even  when  dragged  through  the  slough  of  sensualism. 
The  still  small  voice  which  bids  man  look  up  is  never 
quite  hushed.  If  the  victim  of  the  lower  nature  could 
only  forget  that  he  was  born  to  look  upward,  if  he 
could  only  erase  the  image  of  his  Maker,  if  he  could 
only  hush  the  voice  which  haunts  him  and  condemns 
him  when  he  is  bound  in  slavery,  if  he  could  only  en- 
joy his  indulgences  without  the  mockery  of  remorse, 
he  thinks  he  would  be  content  to  remain  a  brute.  But 
the  ghost  of  his  better  self  rises  as  he  is  about  to  par- 
take of  his  delight,  and  robs  him  of  the  expected  plea- 
sure. He  has  sold  his  better  self  for  pleasure  which  is 
poison,  and  he  cannot  lose  the  consciousness  of  the 
fearful  sacrifice  he  has  made.  The  banquet  may  be 
ready,  but  the  hand  on  the  wall  is  writing  his  doom. 

Give  me  that  soul,  superior  power, 

That  conquest  over  fate, 

Which  sways  the  weakness  of  the  hour, 

Rules  little  things  as  great : 

That  lulls  the  human  waves  of  strife 

With  words  and  feelings  kind. 

And  makes  the  trials  of  our  life 

The  triumphs  of  our  mind. 

Charles  Swain. 


SELF-MASTERY.  305 

Reader,  attend  —  whether  thy  soul 

Soars  fancy's  flights  above  the  pole, 

Or  darkly  grubs  this  earthly  hole, 

In  low  pursuits : 

Know  prudent,  cautious  self-control 

Is  wisdom's  root. 

Burns. 

The  king  is  the  man  who  can.  —  Carlyle. 

I  have  only  one  counsel  for  you —  Be  master.  — Napoleon. 

Ah,  silh'  man,  who  dream'st  thy  honor  stands 

In  ruling  others,  not  thyself.     Thy  slaves 

Serve  thee,  and  thou  thy  slave :  in  iron  bands 

Thy  servile  spirit,  pressed  with  wild  passions,  raves. 

Wouldst  thou  live  honored?  — clip  ambition's  wing; 

To  reason's  yoke  thy  furious  passions  bring: 

Thrice  noble  is  the  man  who  of  himself  is  king. 

Phineas  Fletcher. 

"  Not  in  the  clamor  of  the  crowded  street. 
Not  in  the  shouts  and  plaudits  of  the  throng, 
But  in  ourselves  are  triumph  and  defeat." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


Though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly,  yet  they  grind  exceeding  small ; 
Though  with  patience  He  stands  waiting,  with  exactness  grinds  He  all. 

Frederick  von  Logau. 

Because  sentence  against  an  evil  work  is  not  executed  speedily,  therefore 

the  heart  of  the  sons  of  men  is  fully  set  in  them  to  do  evil.  — Ecclesiastes. 

Cease  to  think  that  the  decrees  of  the  gods  can  be  changed  by  prayers. 

—  Virgil. 

Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth,  and  let  thy  heart  cheer  thee  in 
the  da3's  of  thy  youth,  and  walk  in  the  ways  of  thine  heart  and  in  the  sight 
of  thine  eyes ;  but  know  thou,  that  for  all  these  things  God  will  bring  thee 
into  judgment.  —  Ecclesiastes. 

Man  is  a  watch,  wound  up  at  first,  but  never 
"Wound  up  again:  once  down  he's  down  forever. 

Herrick. 

To  live  long  it  is  necessary  to  live  slowly.  —  Cicero. 
Old  age  seizes  upon  an  ill-spent  youth  like  fire  upon  a  rotten  house.  — 
South. 
Last  Sunday  a  young  man  died  here  of  extreme  old  age  at  twenty-five. 

—  John  Newton. 

If  3^ou  will  not  hear  Reason,  she  '11  surely  rap  your  knuckles.  —Poor 
Richard's  Sayings. 

'T  is  the  sublime  of  man, 
Our  noontide  majesty,  — to  know  ourselves, 
Part  and  proportion  of  a  wondrous  whole. 

Coleridge. 

"  Eh  !  oh  !  ah  ! "  exclaimed  'Franklin  ;  "  what  have  I 
done  to  merit  these  cruel  sufferings  ?  "  "  Many  things," 
replied  the  Gout ;  "  you  have  eaten  and  drunk  too  freely, 
and  too  much  indulged  those  legs  of  yours  in  your  indo- 
lence." 

Nature   seldom   presents    her    bill    on    the  day   you 


JAMES    GILLESPIE    BLAINE 
Nature  demands  that  man  be  ever  at  the  top  of  liis  condition.     He  who  violates 
her  laws  must  pay  the  penalty  though  he  sit  on  a  throne. 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  307 

violate  her  laws.  But  if  3^011  overdraw  your  account  at 
her  bank,  and  give  her  a  mortgage  on  your  body,  be 
sure  she  will  foreclose.  She  may  loan  you  all  you  want ; 
but,  like  Shylock,  she  will  demand  the  last  ounce  of 
flesh.  She  rarely  brings  in  her  cancer  bill  before  the 
victim  is  forty  years  old.  She  does  not  often  annoy  a 
man  with  her  drink  bill  until  he  is  past  his  prime,  and 
then  presents  it  in  the  form  of  Bright's  disease,  fatty 
degeneration  of  the  heart,  drunkard's  liver,  or  some  sim- 
ilar disease.  What  you  pay  the  saloon  keeper  is  but  a 
small  part  of  your  score.  You  have  also  to  settle  with 
Kature,  and  she  takes  your  health,  your  life.  ISTature 
does  not  excuse  man  for  weakness,  incompetence,  or 
ignorance;  she  demands  that  he  be  ever  at  the  top  of 
his  condition. 

We  often  hear  it  said  that  the  age  of  miracles  is  past. 
We  marvel  that  a  thief  dying  on  the  cross  should  ap- 
pear that  very  day  in  Paradise ;  but  behold  how  that 
bit  of  meat  or  vegetable  on  a  Hawarden  breakfast  table 
is  snatched  from  Death,  transformed  into  thought,  and 
on  the  following  night  shakes  Parliament  in  the  mag- 
netism and  oratory  of  a  Gladstone.  The  age  of  miracles 
past,  when  three  times  a  day  right  before  our  eyes  Na- 
ture performs  miracles  greater  even  than  raising  the 
dead  ?  Watch  that  crust  of  bread  thrown  into  a  cell 
in  Bedford  Jail  and  devoured  by  a  poor,  hungry  tinker ; 
cut,  crushed,  ground,  driven  by  muscles,  dissolved  by 
acids  and  alkalies ;  absorbed  and  hurled  into  the  mys- 
terious red  river  of  life.  Scores  of  little  factories  along 
this  strange  stream,  waiting  for  this  crust,  transmute  it 
as  it  passes,  as  if  by  magic,  here  into  a  bone  cell,  there 
into  gastric  juice,  here  into  bile,  there  into  a  nerve  cell, 
yonder  into  a  brain  cell.  We  cannot  trace  the  process 
by  which  this  crust  arrives  at  the  muscle  and  acts,  ar- 
rives at  the  brain  and  thinks.  We  cannot  see  the  ma- 
nipulating hand  which  throws  back  and  forth  the  shuttle 
which  weaves  Bunyan's  destinies,  nor  can  we  trace  the 


308  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

subtle  alchemy  which  transforms  this  prison  crust  into 
the  finest  allegory  in  the  world,  the  Pilgrim's  Progress. 
But  we  do  know  that,  unless  we  supply  food  when  the 
stomach  begs  and  clamors,  brain  and  muscle  cannot  con- 
tinue to  act ;  and  we  also  know  that  unless  the  food  is 
properly  chosen,  unless  we  eat  it  properly,  unless  we 
maintain  good  digestion  by  exercise  of  mind  and  body, 
it  will  not  produce  the  speeches  of  a  Gladstone  or  the 
allegories  of  a  Bunyan. 

Truly  we  are  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made.  Ima- 
gine a  cistern  which  would  transform  the  foul  sewage  of  a 
city  into  pure  drinking  water  in  a  second's  time,  as  the 
black  venous  blood,  foul  with  the  ashes  of  burned-up 
brain  cells  and  debris  of  worn-out  tissues,  is  transformed 
in  the  lungs,  at  every  breath,  into  pure,  bright,  red 
blood.  Each  drop  of  blood  from  that  magic  stream  of 
liquid  life  was  compounded  by  a  divine  Chemist.  In  it 
float  all  our  success  and  destiny.  In  it  are  the  exten- 
sions and  limits  of  our  possibilities.  In  it  are  health 
and  long  life,  or  disease  and  premature  death.  In  it  are 
our  hopes  and  our  fears,  our  courage,  our  cowardice,  our 
energy  or  lassitude,  our  strength  or  weakness,  our  suc- 
cess or  failure.  In  it  are  susceptibilities  of  high  or 
broad  culture,  or  pinched  or  narrow  faculties  handed 
down  from  an  uncultured  ancestry.  From  it  our  bones 
and  nerves,  our  muscles  and  brain,  our  comeliness  or 
ugliness,  all  come.  In  it  are  locked  up  the  elements  of 
a  gentle  or  a  vicious  life,  the  tendencies  of  a  criminal  or 
a  saint.  How  important  is  it,  then,  that  we  should  obey 
the  laws  of  health,  and  thus  maintain  the  purity  and 
power  of  this  our  earthly  River  of  Life  ! 

"  We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  ^  vile  body,'  "  said 
Spencer,  "  and  many  are  encouraged  by  the  phrase  to 
transgress  the  laws  of  health.  But  Nature  quietly  sup- 
presses those  who  treat  thus  disrespectfully  one  of  her 
highest  products,  and  leaves  the  world  to  be  peopled 
by  the  descendants  of  those  who  are  not  so  foolish." 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  309 

Nature  gives  to  him  that  hath.  She  shows  him  the 
contents  of  her  vast  storehouse,  and  bids  him  take  all 
he  wants  and  be  welcome.  But  she  will  not  let  him 
keep  for  years  what  he  does  not  use.  Use  or  lose  is 
her  motto.  Every  atom  we  do  not  utilize  this  great 
economist  snatches  from  us.  "Whosoever  hath,  to 
him  shall  be  given  ;  and  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him 
shall  be  taken  even  that  which  he  seemeth  to  have." 

If  you  put  your  arm  in  a  sling  and  do  not  use  it, 
Nature  will  remove  the  muscle  almost  to  the  bone,  and 
the  arm  will  become  useless,  but  in  exact  proportion  to 
your  efforts  to  use  it  again  she  will  gradually  restore 
what  she  took  away.  Put  your  mind  in  the  sling  of 
idleness,  or  inactivity,  and  in  like  manner  she  will  re- 
move your  brain,  even  to  imbecility.  The  blacksmith 
wants  one  powerful  arm,  and  she  gives  it  to  him,  but 
reduces  the  other.  You  can,  if  you  will,  send  all  the 
energy  of  your  life  into  some  one  faculty,  but  all  your 
other  faculties  will  starve. 

A  young  lady  may  wear  tight  corsets  if  she  chooses, 
but  Nature  will  remove  the  rose  from  her  cheek  and 
put  pallor  there.  She  will  replace  a  clear  complexion 
with  muddy  hues  and  sallow  spots.  She  will  take  away 
the  elastic  step,  the  lustre  from  the  eye.  Devote  your 
energies  to  amassing  wealth ;  steel  your  heart  against 
the  cry  of  the  poor  and  unfortunate  about  you ;  refuse 
to  exercise  your  benevolent  impulses,  and  see  how 
Nature  will  continue  to  lessen  your  inclination  to  give 
until  your  stingy  soul  shrivels  to  that  of  a  miser. 

Don't  expect  to  have  health  for  nothing.  Nothing 
in  this  world  worth  anything  can  be  had  for  nothing. 
Health  is  the  prize  of  a  constant  struggle. 

Nature  passes  no  act  without  affixing  a  penalty  for 
its  violation.  Whenever  Nature  is  outraged  she  will 
have  her  penalty,  although  it  take  a  life. 

A  great  surgeon  stood  before  his  class  to  perform  a 
certain  operation  which  the  elaborate  mechanism  and 


310  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

minute  knowledge  of  modern  science  had  only  recently 
made  possible.  With  strong  and  gentle  hand  he  did  his 
work  successfully  so  far  as  his  j^art  of  the  terrible  busi- 
ness went ;  and  then  he  turned  to  his  pupils  and  said, 
"  Two  years  ago  a  safe  and  simple  operation  might 
have  cured  this  disease.  Six  years  ago  a  wise  way  of 
life  might  have  prevented  it.  We  have  done  our  best 
as  the  case  now  stands,  but  Nature  will  have  her  word 
to  say.  She  does  not  always  consent  to  the  repeal  of 
her  capital  sentences."     Next  day  the  patient  died. 

"  Poor  fellow  !  "  said  Emerson,  as  he  looked  at  his 
delicately  reared  little  son,  ^'  how  much  he  loses  by  not 
having  to  go  through  the  hard  experiences  I  had  in  my 
youth  ! " 

Health,  strength,  and  longevity  depend  upon  immu- 
table laws.  There  is  no  chance  about  them.  Primarily 
our  parents,  and  secondarily  ourselves,  are  responsible 
for  them.  Because  the  virulence  of  disease  rises  above 
the  power  of  all  therapeutics,  or  because  one  quarter  of 
the  human  race  dies  before  completing  one  seventeenth 
of  the  term  of  existence  allotted  to  us  by  the  Psalmist, 
the  Providence  of  God  is  no  more  responsible  than  it  is 
for  picking  pockets  or  stealing  horses. 

Apart  from  accidents,  we  hold  our  life  largely  at  will. 
What  business  have  sixty  thousand  physicians  in  the 
United  States  ?  It  is  our  own  fault  that  even  one  tenth 
of  them  get  a  respectable  living.  What  a  commentary 
upon  our  modern  American  civilization,  that  three  hun- 
dred thousand  people  should  die  annually  from  abso- 
lutely preventable  diseases  !  Seneca  said,  '•  The  gods 
have  given  us  a  long  life,  but  we  have  made  it  short." 
Pew  people  know  enough  to  become  old.  It  is  a  rare 
thing  for  a  person  to  die  of  old  age.  Only  three  or  four 
out  of  a  hundred  die  of  anything  like  old  age.  But  Na- 
ture evidently  intended,  by  the  wonderful  mechanism 
of  the  human  body,  that  we  should  live  well  up  to  a 
century. 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  311 

Thomas  Parr,  of  England,  lived  to  the  age  of  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty-two  years.  He  was  married  when  he 
was  a  hundred  and  twenty,  and  did  not  leave  off  work 
until  he  was  a  hundred  and  thirty.  Henry  Jenkins,  of 
Yorkshire,  England,  lived  to  be  a  hundred  and  sixty- 
nine,  and  would  probably  have  lived  longer  had  not  the 
king  brought  him  to  London,  where  the  luxuries  has- 
tened his  death.  The  court  records  of  England  show 
that  he  was  a  witness  in  a  trial  a  hundred  and  forty 
years  before  his  death.  He  swam  across  a  rapid  river 
when  he  was  a  hundred.  The  great  Dr.  Harvey  exam- 
ined Parr's  body,  but  found  no  cause  of  death  except 
a  change  of  living. 

There  is  nothing  we  are  more  ignorant  of  than  the 
physiology  and  chemistry  of  the  human  body.  Not  one 
person  in  a  thousand  can  correctly  locate  important 
internal  organs  or  describe  their  use  in  the  animal 
economy. 

What  an  insult  to  the  Creator  who  fashioned  them  so 
wonderfully  and  fearfully  in  His  own  image,  that  the 
graduates  from  our  high  schools  and  even  universities, 
and  young  women  who  "  finish  their  education,"  become 
proficient  in  the  languages,  in  music,  in  art,  and  have 
the  culture  of  travel,  cannot  describe  or  explain  the  va- 
rious organs  or  functions  upon  which  their  lives  depend. 
"  The  time  will  come,"  says  Frances  Willard,  "  when  it 
will  be  told  as  a  relic  of  our  primitive  barbarism  that 
children  were  taught  the  list  of  prepositions  and  the 
names  of  the  rivers  of  Thibet,  but  were  not  taught  the 
wonderful  laws  on  which  their  own  bodily  happiness  is 
based,  and  the  humanities  by  which  they  could  live  in 
peace  and  good-will  with  those  about  them."  Nothing 
else  is  so  important  to  man  as  the  study  and  knowledge 
of  himself,  and  yet  he  knows  less  of  himself  than  he 
does  of  the  beasts  about  him. 

The  human  body  is  the  great  poem  of  the  Great  Au- 
thor.    Not   to   learn  how  to  read  it,  to  spell  out  its 


312  ARCHITECTS   OF   FATE. 

meaning,  to  determine  its  beauties,  or  to  attempt  to 
fathom  its  mysteries,  is  a  disgrace  to  our  civilization. 

What  a  price  mortals  pay  for  their  ignorance,  let  a 
dwarfed,  half-developed,  one-sided,  short-lived  nation 
answer. 

If  the  poet  sickens,  his  verse  sickens ;  if  half-oxygen- 
ated blood  flows  to  an  author's  brain,  it  beclouds  his 
pages,  and  the  devotions  of  a  consumptive  man  scent 
of  disease,  as  Lord  Byron's  obscenities  smell  of  gin. 
Not  only  ''  lying  lips,''  but  a  dyspeptic  stomach  is  an 
abomination  to  the  Lord.  Somebody  has  blundered, 
somebody  sinned. 

''  A  brilliant  intellect  in  a  sickly  body  is  like  gold  in 
a  spent  swimmer's  pocket." 

Often,  from  lack  of  exercise,  one  side  of  the  brain 
gradually  becomes  paralyzed  and  deteriorates  into  imbe- 
cility. How  intimately  the  functions  of  the  nervous 
organs  are  united.  The  whole  man  mourns  for  a  felon. 
The  least  swelling  presses  a  nerve  against  a  bone  and 
causes  one  intense  agony,  and  even  a  Napoleon  becomes 
a  child.  A  corn  on  the  toe,  an  affection  of  the  kidneys  or 
of  the  liver,  a  boil  anywhere  on  the  body,  or  a  carbun- 
cle, may  seriously  affect  the  eyes  and  even  the  brain. 
The  whole  system  is  a  network  of  nerves,  of  organs,  of 
functions,  which  are  so  intimately  joined,  and  related 
in  such  close  sympathy,  that  an  injury  to  one  part  is 
immediately  felt  in  every  other. 

Nature  takes  note  of  all  our  transactions,  physical, 
mental,  or  moral,  and  places  every  item  promptly  to  our 
debit  or  credit. 

Let  us  take  a  look  at  a  page  in  Nature's  ledger  :  — 

To  damage  to  the  heart  in  youth  The  "irritableheart," 

by    immoderate     athletics,     tobacco  the   "tobacco  heart," 

chewing,  cigarette  smoking,  drinking  a  life  of  promise  im- 

strong  tea  or  coffee,  rowing,  running  paired  or  blighted, 
to  trains,  overstudy,  excitement,  etc. 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL. 


313 


To  one  digestive  apparatus  ruined, 
by  eating  hurriedly,  by  eating  unsuit- 
able or  poorly  cooked  food,  by  drink- 
ing ice  water  when  heated,  by  swal- 
lowing scalding  drinks,  especially  tea, 
which  forms  tannic  acid  on  the  deli- 
cate lining  of  the  stomach  ;  or  by  eat- 
ing when  tired,  or  worried,  or  after 
receiving  bad  news,  when  the  gastric 
juice  cannot  be  secreted,  etc. 


Dyspepsia,  melan- 
cholia, years  of  misery 
to  self,  worriment  to 
one's  family,  pity  and 
disgust  of  friends. 


To  one  nervous  system  shattered 
by  dissipation,  abuses,  over-excite- 
ment, a  fast  life,  feverish  haste  to  get 
riches  or  fame,  hastening  puberty  by 
stimulating  food,  exciting  life,  etc. 


Years  of  weakness, 
disappointed  ambi- 
tion, hopeless  ineffi- 
ciency, a  hurnt-out  life. 


To  damage  by  undue  mental  ex- 
ertion by  burning  the  "midnight  oil," 
exhausting  the  brain  cells  faster  than 
they  can  be  renewed. 

To  overstraining  the  brain  trying 
to  lead  the  class  in  college,  trying  to 
take  a  prize,  or  to  get  ahead  of  some- 
body else. 


Impaired  powers  of 
mind,  softening  of  the 
brain,  blighted  hopes. 


A  disappointed  am- 
bition, a  life  of  inva- 
lidism. 


To  hardening  the  delicate  and 
sensitive  gray  matter  of  the  brain 
and  nerves,  and  ruining  the  lining 
membranes  of  the  stomach  and  ner- 
vous system  by  alcohol,  opium,  etc. 


A  hardened  brain,  a 
hardened  conscience,  a 
ruined  home,  Bright's 
disease,  fatty  degener- 
ation, nervous  degen- 
eration, a  short,  use- 
less, wasted  life. 


By  forced  balances,  here  and  there. 


Accounts        closed. 
Physiological  and 

moral  bankruptcy. 


Sometimes  two  or  three  such  items  are  charged  to 
a  single  account.     To  offset  them,  there  is  placed  on 


314  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  credit  side  a  little  feverish  excitenient,  too  fleeting 
for  calm  enjoyment,  followed  by  regret,  remorse,  and 
shame.  Be  sure  your  sins  will  find  you  out.  They  are 
all  recorded. 

*'  The  gods  are  just,  and  of  our  pleasant  vices 
Make  instruments  to  scourge  us." 

It  is  a  wonder  that  we  live  at  all.  We  violate  every 
law  of  our  being,  yet  we  expect  to  live  to  a  ripe  old 
age.  What  would  you  think  of  a  man  who,  having  an 
elegant  watch  delicately  adjusted  to  heat  and  cold, 
should  leave  it  on  the  sidewalk  with  cases  open  on  a 
dusty  or  a  rainy  day,  and  yet  expect  it  to  keep  good 
time  ?  What  would  you  think  of  a  householder  who 
should  leave  the  doors  and  windows  of  his  mansion 
open  to  thieves  and  tramps,  to  winds  and  dust  and 
rain? 

What  are  our  bodies  but  timepieces  made  by  an  In- 
finite Hand,  wound  up  to  run  a  century,  and  so  delicately 
adjusted  to  heat  and  cold  that  the  temperature  will  not 
vary  half  a  degree  between  the  heat  of  summer  and  the 
cold  of  winter  whether  we  live  in  the  regions  of  eternal 
frost  or  under  the  burning  sun  of  the  tropics  ?  A  parti- 
cle of  dust  or  the  slightest  friction  will  throw  this  won- 
derful timepiece  out  of  order,  yet  we  often  leave  it  ex- 
posed to  all  the  corroding  elements.  We  do  not  always 
keep  open  the  twenty-five  miles  of  ventilating  pores  in 
the  skin  by  frequent  bathing.  We  seldom  lubricate 
the  delicate  wheels  of  the  body  with  the  oil  of  gladness. 
We  expose  it  to  dust  and  cinders,  cold  and  draughts,  and 
poisonous  gases. 

How  careful  we  are  to  filter  our  water,  air  our  beds, 
ventilate  our  sleeping-rooms,  and  analyze  our  milk. 
AVe  shrink  from  contact  with  filth  and  disease.  But 
we  put  paper  colored  with  arsenic  on  our  walls,  and 
daily  breathe  its  poisonous  exhalations.  We  frequent 
theatres  crowded  with  human  beings,  many  of  whom 
are   uncleanly  and    diseased.     We    sit    for   hours    and 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  315 

breathe  in  upon  fourteen  hundred  square  feet  of  lung 
tissue  the  heated,  foul,  and  heavy  air ;  carbonic  acid 
gas  from  hundreds  of  gas  burners,  each  consuming  as 
much  oxygen  as  six  people ;  air  filled  with  shreds  of 
tissue  expelled  from  diseased  lungs  ;  poisonous  effluvia 
exhaled  from  the  bodies  of  people  who  rarely  bathe, 
from  clothing  seldom  washed,  fetid  breaths,  and  skin 
diseases  in  different  stages  of  development.  For  hours 
we  sit  in  this  bath  of  poison,  and  wonder  at  our  head- 
ache and  lassitude  next  morning. 

We  pour  a  glass  of  ice  water  into  a  stomach  busy  in 
the  delicate  operation  of  digestion,  ignorant  or  careless 
of  the  fact  that  it  takes  half  an  hour  to  recover  from 
the  shock  and  get  the  temperature  back  to  ninety-eight 
degrees,  so  that  the  stomach  can  go  on  secreting  gastric 
juice.  Then  down  goes  another  glass  of  water  with 
similar  results. 

We  pour  down  alcohol  which  thickens  the  velvety 
lining  of  the  stomach,  and  hardens  the  soft  tissues,  the 
thin  sheaths  of  nerves,  and  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain. 
We  crowd  meats,  vegetables,  pastry,  confectionery,  nuts, 
raisins,  wines,  fruits,  etc.,  into  one  of  the  most  delicately 
constructed  organs  of  the  body,  and  expect  it  to  take 
care  of  its  miscellaneous  and  incongruous  load  without  a 
murmur. 

After  all  these  abuses  we  do  not  give  the  blood  a 
chance  to  go  to  the  stomach  and  help  it  out  of  its  misery, 
but  summon  it  to  the  brain  and  muscles,  notwithstand- 
ing the  fact  that  it  is  so  important  to  have  an  extra 
supply  to  aid  digestion  that  Nature  has  made  the  blood 
vessels  of  the  alimentary  canal  large  enough  to  contain 
several  times  the  amount  in  the  entire  body. 

Who  ever  saw  a  horse  leave  his  oats  and  hay,  when 
hungry,  to  wash  them  down  with  water  ?  The  dumb 
beasts  can  teach  us  some  valuable  lessons  in  eating  and 
drinking.  Nature  mixes  our  gastric  juice  or  pepsin  and 
acids  in  just  the  right  proportion  to  digest  our  food,  and 


316  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

keep  it  at  exactly  the  right  temperature.  If  we  dilute 
it,  or  lower  its  temperature  by  ice  water,  we  diminish 
its  solvent  or  digestive  power,  and  dyspepsia  is  the  nat- 
ural result. 

English  factory  children  have  received  the  commiser- 
ation of  the  world  because  they  were  scourged  to  work 
eighteen  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four.  But  there  is 
many  a  theoretical  republican  who  is  a  harsher  task- 
master to  his  stomach  than  this  ;  who  allows  it  no  more 
resting  time  than  he  does  his  watch ;  who  gives  it  no 
Sunday,  no  holiday,  no  vacation  in  any  sense,  and  who 
seeks  to  make  his  heart  beat  faster  for  the  sake  of  the 
exhilaration  he  can  thus  produce. 

Although  the  heart  weighs  a  little  over  half  a  pound, 
yet  it  pumps  eighteen  pounds  of  blood  from  itself, 
forcing  it  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  entire  body, 
back  to  itself  in  less  than  two  minutes.  This  little  organ 
does  a  daily  work  equal  to  lifting  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  tons  one  foot  high.  This  most  perfect 
engine  in  the  world  exerts  one  third  as  much  muscle 
power  as  does  a  stout  man  in  hard  labor.  If  the  heart 
should  expend  its  entire  force  lifting  its  own  weight,  it 
would  raise  itself  nearly  twenty  thousand  feet  an  hour, 
ten  times  as  high  as  a  pedestrian  can  lift  himself  in  as- 
cending a  mountain.  What  folly,  then,  to  goad  this 
willing,  hard-working  slave  to  greater  exertions  by  stim- 
ulants ! 

When  one  of  the  most  renowned  physicians  of  France 
was  on  his  deathbed,  and  the  foremost  medical  men  of 
Paris  were  deploring  at  his  bedside  the  great  loss  the 
profession  would  sustain  by  his  death,  it  is  said  that 
the  dying  man  assured  them  that  he  left  behind  three 
physicians  much  greater  than  himself :  Water,  Exercise, 
and  Diet.  "  Call  in  the  services  of  the  first  freely,"  he 
said,  "  of  the  second  regularly,  and  of  the  third  moder- 
ately. Follow  this  advice,  and  you  may  well  dispense 
with  my  aid.     Living,  I  could  do  nothing  without  them, 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  317 

and,  dying,  I  shall  not  be  missed  if  you  make  friends 
of  these  my  faithful  coadjutors." 

We  must  pay  the  penalty  of  our  vocations.  Beware  of 
work  that  kills  the  workman.  All  occupations  in  which 
impure  air  or  deleterious  gases  must  be  inhaled  should 
be  avoided.  Stone-cutters,  miners,  and  steel  grinders 
are  short  lived,  the  sharp  particles  of  dust  irritating 
and  inflaming  the  tender  lining  of  the  lung  cells.  The 
knife  and  fork  grinders  in  Manchester,  England,  rarely 
live  beyond  thirty-two  years.  Those  who  prize  long 
life  should  avoid  all  occupations  which  compel  them  to 
breathe  impure  air,  and  especially  those  in  which  they 
are  obliged  to  inhale  dust  and  filings  from  steel  and  brass 
and  iron,  the  dust  in  coal  mines,  and  dust  from  thresh- 
ing-machines. Those  who  work  in  grain  elevators  and 
those  who  are  compelled  to  breathe  chemical  poisons 
are  short  lived. 

Deep  breathing  in  dusty  places  sends  the  particles  of 
dust  into  the  upper  and  less  used  lobes  of  the  lungs,  and 
these  become  a  constant  irritant,  until  they  finally  excite 
an  inflammation,  which  may  end  in  consumption.  All 
occupations  in  which  arsenic  is  used  shorten  life.  A 
box-maker  not  far  from  Boston  noticed  that  some  of  his 
girls  did  not  live  more  than  four  or  five  years  after  they 
entered  his  service. 

Dr.  William  Ogle,  who  is  authority  upon  this  subject, 
says,  "  Of  all  the  various  influences  that  tend  to  produce 
differences  of  mortality  in  any  community,  none  is  more 
potent  than  the  character  of  the  prevailing  occupations." 
Finding  that  clergymen  and  priests  have  the  lowest 
death-rate,  he  represented  it  as  one  hundred,  and  by 
comparison  found  that  the  rate  for  inn  and  hotel  ser- 
vants was  three  hundred  and  ninety -seven ;  miners, 
three  hundred  and  thirty-one;  earthenware  makers, 
three  hundred  and  seventeen  ;  file  makers,  three  hun- 
dred ;  innkeepers,  two  hundred  and  seventy-four ;  gar- 
deners, farmers,  and  agricultural  laborers  closely  approx- 


318  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

imating  the  clerical  standard.  He  gave  as  tlie  causes 
of  high  mortality,  first,  working  in  a  cramped  or  con- 
strained attitude  ;  second,  exposure  to  the  action  of  poi- 
sonous or  irritating  substances ;  third,  excessive  work, 
mental  or  physical ;  fourth,  working  in  confined  or  foul 
air;  fifth,  the  use  of  strong  drink;  sixth,  differences  in 
liability  to  fatal  accidents ;  seventh,  exposure  to  the  in- 
halation of  dust.  The  deaths  of  those  engaged  in  alco- 
holic industries  were  as  one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
twenty-one  to  one  thousand  of  the  average  of  all  trades. 
It  is  very  important  that  occupations  should  be  con- 
genial. Whenever  our  work  galls  us,  whenever  we  feel 
it  to  be  a  drudgery  and  uncongenial,  the  friction  grinds 
life  away  at  a  terrible  rate. 

Health  can  be  accumulated,  invested,  and  made  to 
yield  its  compound  interest,  and  thus  be  doubled  and 
redoubled.  The  capital  of  health  may  be,  indeed,  for- 
feited by  one  misdemeanor,  as  a  rich  man  may  sink  all 
his  property  in  one  bad  speculation ;  but  it  is  as  capable 
of  being  increased  as  any  other  kind  of  capital. 

Industry  conduces  to  longevity.  It  is  the  ship  at 
wharf,  not  the  ship  at  sea,  that  rots  fastest.  Eunning 
water  purifies  itself.  So  honest,  earnest,  human  endeavor 
tends  to  health  of  body,  mind,  and  soul.  Exercise  regu- 
lates the  flow  of  bile,  and  many  of  us  carry  our  creeds  in 
our  bile-ducts.  If  they  are  healthy  we  are  optimists  ;  if 
diseased,  pessimists. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  we  carry  our  work  or  play  to 
extremes.  Nature  will  present  a  bill  for  the  excess. 
Moderate  rowing  is  beneficial  to  the  lungs,  yet  more 
than  one  professional  oarsman  has  died  of  consumption. 
Physicians  are  familiar  with  the  irritable  heart  of  young 
athletes  and  soldiers  ;  the  pulse  is  rapid  and  irregular, 
with  palpitation,  showing  that  the  circulatory  appa- 
ratus has  been  strained.  Kaces  ruin  nine  tenths  of  our 
thoroughbred  horses  before  they  reach  maturity.  The 
attempt  to  break  a  record  has  ruined  many  a  young  man. 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  319 

Adolescents,  even  with  the  muscular  strength  of  adults, 
have  far  less  staying  power.  Growing  lads  have  no  as- 
sets to  2iYQvt  physiological  hanhruptcy  when  there  is  an 
extraordinary  call  upon  their  physical  resources,  while 
fully  developed  men  in  good  health  have  always  a  con- 
siderable balance  in  their  favor.  Hence  young  men 
cannot  safely  compete  with  men  in  the  prime  of  life  in 
arduous  physical  labor,  in  intense  mental  work,  or  in 
the  use  of  tobacco,  alcoholic  drinks,  or  even  strong  tea 
or  coffee. 

One  is  inclined  to  think  with  a  recent  writer  that  it 
looks  as  if  the  rich  men  kept  out  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  were  also  excluded  from  the  kingdom  of  brains. 
In  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  are  hundreds  of 
millionaires,  some  of  them  running  through  three  or 
four  generations  of  fortune  ;  and  yet,  in  all  their  ranks, 
there  is  seldom,  and  hardly  ever  has  been,  a  man  pos- 
sessed of  the  higher  intellectual  qualities  that  flower  in 
literature,  eloquence,  or  statesmanship.  Scarcely  one  of 
them  has  produced  a  book  worth  printing,  a  poem  worth 
reading,  or  a  speech  worth  listening  to.  They  are 
struck  with  intellectual  sterility.  They  sit  dumb  under 
the  upas-tree  of  their  millions.  They  go  to  college; 
they  travel  abroad ;  they  hire  the  dearest  masters ;  they 
keep  libraries  among  their  furniture  ;  and  some  of  them 
buy  works  of  art.  But,  for  all  that,  their  brains  wither 
under  luxury,  often  by  their  own  vices  or  tomfooleries, 
and  mental  barrenness  is  the  result.  Who  violates 
Nature's  law  must  suffer  the  penalty,  though  he  have 
millions.  The  fruits  of  intellect  do  not  grow  among 
the  indolent  rich.  They  are  out  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  out  of  the  republic  of  brains.  Work  or  starve 
is  Nature's  motto ;  starve  mentally,  starve  morally,  even 
if  you  are  rich  enough  to  prevent  physical  starvation. 

How  heavy  a  bill  Nature  collects  of  him  in  whom 
the  sexual  instinct  has  been  permitted  to  taint  the  whole 
life  with  illicit  thoughts  and  deeds,  stultifying  the  in- 
tellect, deadening  the  sensibilities,  dwarfing  the  soul. 


320  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  I  waive  the  quantum  of  the  sin, 
The  hazard  of  concealing ; 
Butoch,  it  hardens  all  within, 
And  petrifies  the  feeling." 

The  sense  of  fatigue  is  one  of  Nature's  many  signals 
of  danger.  All  we  accomplisli  by  stimulating  or  crowd- 
ing the  body  or  mind  when  tired  is  worse  than  lost. 
Insomnia,  and  sometimes  even  insanity,  is  Nature's 
penalty  for  prolonged  loss  of  sleep. 

One  of  the  worst  tortures  of  the  Inquisition  was  that 
of  keeping  victims  from  sleeping,  often  driving  them  to 
insanity  or  death.  Melancholy  follows  insomnia ;  in- 
sanity, both.  To  keep  us  in  a  healthy  condition.  Nature 
takes  us  back  to  herself,  puts  us  under  the  ether  of  sleep, 
and  keeps  us  there  nearly  one  third  of  our  lives,  while 
she  overhauls  and  repairs  in  secret  our  wonderful 
mechanism.  She  takes  us  back  each  night  wasted  and 
dusty  from  the  day's  work,  broken,  scarred,  and  injured 
in  the  great  struggle  of  life.  Each  cell  of  the  brain  is 
reburnished  and  freshened;  all  the  ashes  or  waste 
from  the  combustion  of  the  tissues  is  washed  out  into 
the  blood  stream,  pumped  to  the  lungs,  and  thrown  out 
in  the  breath ;  and  the  body  is  returned  in  the  morning 
as  fresh  and  good  as  new. 

Great  minds  sometimes  lose  the  ability  to  sleep  when 
overworked  and  anxious,  when  life  becomes  torture. 
Goldsmith  became  unable  to  sleep  at  forty-five,  except 
from  absolute  exhaustion,  and  suffered  terribly.  John 
Leech,  famous  for  his  pictures  in  "  Punch,"  became  a 
victim  to  insomnia,  and  literally  worked  himself  to 
death.  His  last  caricature  appeared  in  "Punch"  the 
day  he  died.  Newton  and  other  mathematicians  worked 
sometimes  until  their  brains  would  not  stop  working, 
and  solved  difficult  problems  in  dreams. 

After  long  continued  mental  strain,  great  workers 
sometimes  lose  control  of  their  brains,  which  go  on 
working   day    and    night,    independent  of   their   wills. 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  321 

Sleep  or  rest  seems  impossible.  Think,  think,  think  is 
all  the  poor  creature  can  do,  until  too  often  he  falls  a 
victim  to  paralysis,  or  is  driven  to  insanity.  Byron  was 
tortured  by  insomnia.  Sir  Walter  Scott  so  overworked 
his  brain  that  Dr.  Abernethy  remonstrated  with  him, 
but  Scott  replied,  "  Molly  might  as  well  tell  the  kettle 
not  to  boil  when  she  puts  it  on  the  fire."  His  cry  was 
ever,  ''  To  work,  to  work."  Galileo  once  lost  control  of 
his  mind  through  insomnia.  It  worked  night  and  day 
until  stupor  intervened. 

Boys  tell  us  that  people  who  rise  early  are  stupid  all 
the  forenoon  and  conceited  all  the  afternoon. 

Josiah  Quincy  rose  so  early  in  the  morning  that  he 
did  not  get  sleep  enough,  and  if  he  sat  down  ten  min- 
utes in  the  day  he  was  likely  to  fall  asleep.  John 
Quincy  Adams  was  also  addicted  to  excessive  early  ris- 
ing. One  day  they  both  went  into  Judge  Story's  lecture 
room  at  Harvard  to  hear  him  lecture  to  the  class.  In  a 
few  minutes  they  were  both  asleep,  one  on  each  side  of 
him  on  the  platform.  The  judge  said,  ''  Gentlemen, 
you  see  before  you  a  melancholy  example  of  the  evil 
effects  of  early  rising."  The  shouts  that  followed  awoke 
the  sleepers. 

The  American  honey  does  not  always  pay  for  the 
sting.  Labor  is  the  eternal  condition  on  which  the  rich 
man  gains  an  appetite  for  his  dinner,  and  the  poor  man 
a  dinner  for  his  appetite  ;  but  the  habit  of  constant,  per- 
petual industry  often  becomes  a  disease.  Thousands 
of  ambitious  Americans  throw  away  years  of  possible 
life  by  this  constant,  perpetual,  everlasting  grind. 

In  the  Norse  legend,  Allfader  was  not  allowed  to 
drink  from  Mirmir's  Spring,  the  fount  of  wisdom,  until 
he  had  left  his  eye  as  a  pledge.  Scholars  often  leave 
their  health,  their  happiness,  their  usefulness  behind, 
in  their  great  eagerness  to  drink  deep  draughts  at  wis- 
dom's fountain.  Professional  men  often  sacrifice  every- 
thing that  is  valuable  in  life  for  the  sake  of  reputation, 


322  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

influence,  and  money.  Business  men  sacrifice  home, 
family,  health,  happiness,  in  the  great  struggle  after 
money  and  power. 

"  If  riches  increase,  they  are  increased  that  use  them. 
If  the  gatherer  gathers  too  much,  Nature  takes  out  of 
the  man  what  she  puts  into  his  chest ;  swells  the  estate, 
but  kills  the  owner."  Nature  is  no  sentimentalist. 
She  pardons  no  blunders,  forgives  no  violation  of  her 
law.  He  who  breaks  her  commandments,  though  he 
sit  upon  a  throne,  must  pay  the  penalty,  even  though  it 
take  his  life.  A  bullet  will  not  swerve  a  hair's  breadth 
from  its  course  though  fired  by  a  lunatic  and  a  Presi- 
dent stand  in  its  way. 

The  American  prize,  like  the  pearl  in  the  oyster,  is 
very  attractive,  but  is  too  often  the  result  of  disease. 

Nervousness  is  a  life  shortener  —  although  it  could 
largely  be  controlled  by  the  will.  Intensely  nervous 
people  usually  die  young.  Chatterton  died  at  eighteen, 
Keats  at  twenty-five.  Thirty-seven  has  been  the  fatal 
age  at  which  too  many  a  genius  has  died.  Shelley 
was  a  great  sufferer  all  his  life,  and  was  never  free 
from  pain.  "  I  have  written,"  said  Southey,  "  a 
short  and  interesting  account  of  Lucretia  M.  Davidson, 
an  American  poetess,  killed,  like  White,  by  over-excite- 
ment, in  her  seventeenth  year.  It  is  a  most  affecting 
story."  The  great  physician,  Haller,  would  remain  in 
his  study  for  months  together.  He  ate  and  slept  there 
in  order  to  save  time,  but  he  cut  short  his  beautiful 
life,  and  did  not  accomplish  nearly  as  much  as  he  would 
had  he  listened  to  Nature's  voice  and  taken  proper 
sleep,  recreation,  and  rest.  Goethe  was  always  attacked 
by  serious  illness  after  each  of  his  works  was  finished. 

Charles  Linnaeus,  the  great  naturalist,  so  exhausted 
his  brain  by  overwork  that  he  could  not  recognize  his 
own  work,  and  even  forgot  his  own  name.  Kirk 
White  won  the  prize  at  Cambridge,  but  it  cost  him  his 
life.     He  studied  nights,  and  forced  his  brain  by  stimu- 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  323 

lants  and  narcotics  in  his  endeavor  to  pull  through,  but 
he  died  at  twenty-four.  Paley  died  at  thirty-nine,  of 
over\York.  He  was  called  "  one  of  the  sublimest  spirits 
in  the  world.'^ 

President  Timothy  Dwight  of  Yale  College  nearly 
killed  himself  by  overwork  when  a  young  man.  When 
at  Yale  he  studied  nine  hours,  and  taught  six  hours  a 
day,  and  took  no  exercise  whatever.  He  could  not  be 
induced  to  stop  until  he  became  so  nervous  and  irrita- 
ble that  he  was  unable  to  look  at  a  book  ten  minutes  a 
day.  His  mind  gave  way  completely,  and  it  was  a  long 
time  before  he  fully  recovered.  "  The  Life  of  Frederick 
the  G-reat "  nearly  prostrated  Carlyle. 

Imagine  the  surprise  of  the  angels  at  the  death  of 
men  and  women  in  the  early  prime  and  vigor  of  life. 
Could  we  but  read  the  notes  of  their  autopsies  we  might 
say  less  of  mysterious  Providence  at  funerals.  These 
would  run  somewhat  as  follows  :  — 

NOTES    FROM    THE    ANGELS'    AUTOPSIES. 

What,  is  it  retm-ned  so  soon? — a  body  framed  for  a  cen- 
tury's use  returned  at  thirty?  —  a  temple  which  was  twenty- 
eight  years  in  building  destroyed  almost  before  it  was  com- 
pleted ?  What  have  gray  hairs,  wrinkles,  a  bent  form,  and 
death  to  do  with  youth  ? 

Has  all  this  beauty  perished  like  a  bud  just  bursting  into 
bloom,  jDlucked  by  the  grim  destroyer  ?  Has  she  fallen  a  vic- 
tim to  tight-lacing,  over-excitement,  and  the  gayety  of  fashion- 
able life  ?    Poor  thing ! 

Here  is  an  educated,  refined  lady  who  died  of  lung  starva- 
tion. What  a  tax  human  beings  pay  for  breathing  impure 
ah !  Nature  provides  them  with  a  tonic  atmosphere,  com- 
pounded by  the  divine  Chemist,  but  they  refuse  to  breathe  it 
in  its  purity,  and  so  must  pay  the  penalty  in  shortened  lives. 
They  can  live  a  long  time  without  water,  a  longer  time  with- 
out food,  clothing,  or  the  so-called  comforts  of  life ;  they  can 
live  without  education  or  culture,  but  their  lungs  must  have 
good,  healthful  air-food  twenty-four  thousand  times  a  day  if 
they  would  maintain  health.     Oh,  that  they  could  see,  as  we 


324  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

do,  the  intimate  connection  between  bad  air,  bad  morals,  and 
a  tendency  to  crime.  It  hardly  seems  credible  that  there  are 
thousands  of  wealthy  people,  living  on  the  best  streets  of  large 
cities,  who  actually  deny  themselves  the  free  air  of  heaven, 
and  starve,  literally  starve,  for  sunlight,  the  source  of  all 
physical  life  and  power.  How  many  children,  sent  to  induce 
man  to  return  to  Paradise,  live  and  sleep  where  plants  would 
die. 

Here  are  the  ruins  of  an  idolized  son  and  loving  husband. 
Educated  and  refined,  what  infinite  possibilities  beckoned  him 
onward  at  the  beginning  of  his  career.  But  the  Devil's  agent 
offered  him  imagination,  sprightliness,  wit,  eloquence,  bodily 
strength,  and  happiness  in  eau  de  vie,  or  "  water  of  life,"  as 
he  called  it,  at  only  fifteen  cents  a  glass.  The  best  of  our 
company  tried  to  dissuade  him,  but  to  no  avail.  The  poor 
mortal  closed  his  "  bargain  "  with  the  draniseller,  and  what 
did  he  get  ?  A  hardened  conscience,  a  ruined  home,  a  diseased 
body,  a  muddled  brain,  a  heartbroken  wife,  wretched  children, 
disappointed  friends,  triumphant  enemies,  days  of  remorse, 
nights  of  anguish,  an  unwept  deathbed,  an  unhonored  grave. 
And  only  to  think  that  he  is  only  one  of  many  thousands  ! 
"  What  fools  these  mortals  be  !  " 

Did  he  not  see  the  destruction  toward  which  he  was  rush- 
ing with  all  the  feverish  haste  of  slavish  appetite  ?  Ah,  yes, 
but  only  when  it  was  too  late.  In  his  clenched  hand,  as  he 
lay  dead,  was  found  a  crumpled  paper  containing  the  follow- 
ing, in  lines  barely  legible  so  tremulous  were  the  nerves  of 
the  writer :  "  Wife,  children,  and  over  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars all  gone  !  I  alone  am  responsible.  All  has  gone  down  my 
throat.  When  I  w^as  twenty-one  I  had  a  fortune.  I  am  not 
yet  thirty-five  years  old.  I  have  killed  my  beautiful  wife, 
who  died  of  a  broken  heart ;  have  murdered  our  children  with 
neglect.  When  this  coin  is  gone  I  do  not  know  how  I  can  get 
my  next  meal.  I  shall  die  a  drunken  pauper.  This  is  my 
last  money,  and  my  history.  If  this  bill  comes  into  the  hands 
of  any  man  who  drinks,  let  him  take  warning  from  my  life's 
ruin." 

What  a  magnificent  specimen  of  manhood  this  would  have 
been  if  his  life  had  been  under  the  rule  of  reason,  not  pas- 
sion. He  dies  of  old  age  at  forty,  his  hair  is  gray,  his  eyes 
are  sunken,  his  complexion  sodden,  his  body  marked  with  the 


NATURE'S  LITTLE  BILL.  325 

labels  of  his  disease.  A  physique  fit  for  a  god,  fashioned  in 
the  Creator's  image,  with  infinite  possibilities,  a  physiological 
hulk  wrecked  on  passion's  seas,  and  fit  only  for  a  danger  sig- 
nal to  warn  the  race.  What  would  parents  think  of  a  captain 
who  would  leave  his  son  in  charge  of  a  ship  without  giving 
him  any  instructions  or  chart  showing  the  rocks,  reefs,  and 
shoals  ?  Do  they  not  know  that  those  who  sleep  in  the  ocean 
are  but  a  handful  compared  with  those  who  have  foundered 
on  passion's  seas?  Oh,  the  sins  of  silence  which  parents 
commit  against  those  dearer  to  them  than  life  itself.  Youth 
cannot  understand  the  great  solicitude  of  pai'ents  regarding 
their  education,  their  associations,  their  welfare  generally, 
with  the  mysterious  silence  in  regard  to  their  physical  na- 
tures. An  intelligent  explanation,  by  all  mothers  to  the 
daughters  and  by  all  fathers  to  the  sons,  of  the  mysteries  of 
their  physical  lives,  when  at  the  right  age,  would  revolutionize 
civilization. 

This  young  clergyman  killed  himself  trying  to  be  popular. 
This  student  committed  suicide  by  exhausting  his  brain  in 
trying  to  lead  his  class.  This  young  lawyer  overdrew  his  ac- 
count at  Nature's  bank,  and  she  foreclosed  by  a  stroke  of 
paralysis. 

This  merchant  died  at  thirty-five  by  his  own  hand.  His 
life  was  slipping  away  without  enjoyment.  He  had  murdered 
his  capacity  for  happiness,  and  dug  his  own  spiritual  grave 
while  making  preparations  for  enjoying  life.  This  young  so- 
ciety man  died  of  nothing  to  do  and  dissipation,  at  thirty : 
very  little  brains  found. 

Here  is  a  good  old  man  of  sixty,  his  gray  hair,  if  we  could 
believe  his  eulogists,  a  mark  of  wisdom.  But  such  wisdom 
ought  to  have  saved  him  from  dying  of  "  old  age  "  at  sixty. 
Did  he  not  know  that  his  hair  was  growing  gray,  his  face  be- 
coming pinched  and  wrinkled,  his'  brain  losing  its  former 
activity,  his  step  becoming  feeble  because  his  blood  no  longer 
carried  its  full  load  of  nutriment  to  all  parts  of  the  body  ? 
Did  he  not  realize  the  simple  truth  that  man  begins  life  in  a 
gelatinous  condition  and  ends  in  an  osseous  state,  being  soft 
in  infancy  and  hard  in  old  age  ?  Did  he  ever  think  that  age 
is  but  ossification,  and  is  produced  by  too  much  of  the  car- 
bonates and  phosphates  of  lime  in  food  and  drink,  which  not 
only  harden  the  bones,  but  also  thicken  arteries  and  veins, 


326  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

and  check  the  fullness  and  freedom  of  the  flow  of  the  human 
River  of  Life  ? 

What  a  miserable  farce  the  life  of  men  and  women  seems 
to  us !  Time,  which  is  so  precious  that  even  the  Creator  will 
not  give  a  second  moment  until  the  first  is  gone,  they  throw 
away  as  though  it  were  water.  Opportunities  which  angels 
covet  they  fling  away  as  of  no  consequence,  and  die  failures, 
because  they  have  "  no  chance  in  life."  Life,  which  seems  so 
precious  to  us,  they  spurn  as  if  but  a  bauble.  Scarcely  a 
mortal  returns  to  us  who  has  not  robbed  himself  of  years  of 
precious  life.  Scarcely  a  man  returns  to  us  dropping  oft'  in 
genuine  old  age,  as  autumn  leaves  dro]3  in  the  forest.  Jl  they 
could  but  see  the  wonders  of  the  human  body,  whose  exquisite 
beauties  excite  admiration  even  in  heaven,  they  would  not 
torture  it  with  hideous  dress,  abuse  its  sacred  functions  with 
foolish  excesses,  or  even  neglect  its  thorough  care.  Has  life 
become  so  cheap  that  mortals  thus  throw  it  away  ? 

The  lesson  is  plain  ;  the  list  is  endless  ;  the  variety 
is  infinite;  but  examples  of  well-spent  lives  are  very 
rare. 


CHARLES    SUMNER 
Have  an  ambition  to  be  remembered,  not  as  a  great  lawyer,  doctor,  merchant, 
scientist,  manufacturer,  or  scholar,  but  as  a  great  inaii,  every  inch  a  king. 


CHAPTER   XY*III. 

VOCATIONS,  GOOD    AND    BAD. 

There  are  few  questions  in  this  world  so  frequently  agitated,  of  which 
the  solution  is  more  important  to  each  puzzled  mortal,  than  that  upon 
which  starts  every  sage's  discovery,  ever}'^  novelist's  plot, — that  which 
applies  to  man's  life,  from  its  first  sleep  in  the  cradle,  —  "  What  will  he  do 
with  it  ?  "  —  BuLWEK. 

Be  what  nature  intended  you  for,  and  you  will  succeed ;  be  anything 
else,  and  you  will  be  ten  thousand  times  worse  than  nothing.  —  Sydney 
Smith. 

"  Many  a  man  pays  for  his  success  with  a  slice  of  his  constitution." 

No  man  struggles  perpetually  and  victoriously  against  his  own  charac- 
ter; and  one  of  the  first  principles  of  success  in  life  is  so  to  regulate  our 
career  as  rather  to  turn  our  physical  constitution  and  natural  inclinations 
to  good  account  than  to  endeavor  to  counteract  the  one  or  oppose  the 
other.  —  BuLWER. 

He  that  hath  a  trade  hath  an  estate.  —  Franklin. 

Nature  fits  all  her  children  with  something  to  do.  —  Lowell. 

As  occupations  and  professions  have  a  powerful  influ- 
ence upon  tlie  length  of  human  life,  the  youth  should 
first  ascertain  whether  the  vocation  he  thinks  of  choos- 
ing is  a  healthy  one.  Statesmen,  judges,  and  clergy- 
men are  noted  for  their  longevity.  They  are  not  swept 
into  the  great  business  vortex,  where  the  friction  and 
raspings  of  sharp  competition  whittle  life  away  at  a 
fearful  rate.  Astronomers,  who  contemplate  vast  sys- 
tems, moving  through  enormous  distances,  are  excep- 
tionally long  lived,  —  as  Herschel  and  Humboldt.  Phi- 
losophers, scientists,  and  mathematicians,  as  Galileo, 
Bacon,  ISTewton,  Euler,  Dalton,  in  fact  those  who  have 
dwelt  upon  the  exact  sciences,  seem  to  have  escaped 
many  of  the  ills  from  which  humanity  suffers.  Great 
students  of  natural  history  have  also,  as  a  rule,  lived 


328  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

long  and  happy  lives.  Of  fourteen  members  of  a  noted 
historical  society  in  England,  who  died  in  1870,  two 
were  over  ninety,  five  over  eighty,  and  two  over  seventy. 

The  occupation  of  the  mind  has  a  great  influence  upon 
the  health  of  the  body.  The  pursuit  of  science  tends  to 
long  life  by  its  atmosphere  of  harmony. 

There  is  no  employment  so  dangerous  and  destruc- 
tive to  life  but  plenty  of  human  beings  can  be  found  to 
engage  in  it.  Of  all  the  instances  that  can  be  given  of 
recklessness  of  life,  there  is  none  which  exceeds  that  of 
the  workmen  employed  in  what  is  called  dry-pointing, 
—  the  grinding  of  needles  and  of  table  forks.  The  fine 
steel  dust  which  they  breathe  brings  on  a  painful  dis- 
ease, of  which  they  are  almost  sure  to  die  before  they 
are  forty.  Yet  not  only  are  men  tempted  by  high 
wages  to  engage  in  this  employment,  but  they  resist  to 
the  utmost  all  contrivances  devised  for  diminishing  the 
danger,  through  fear  that  such  things  would  cause  more 
workmen  to  offer  themselves  and  thus  lower  wages. 
Many  physicians  have  investigated  the  effects  of  work 
in  the  numerous  match  factories  in  France  upon  the 
health  of  the  employees,  and  all  agree  that  rapid  de- 
struction of  the  teeth,  decay  or  necrosis  of  the  jaw- 
bone, bronchitis,  and  other  diseases  result. 

During  a  period  of  thirty  -  four  years  and  eight 
months  there  died  in  Massachusetts  one  hundred  sixty- 
seven  thousand,  eight  hundred  and  one  men  over  twenty 
years  of  age,  whose  occupations  were  specified  in  the 
registry  of  their  diseases.  The  average  age  was  fifty- 
one.  Those  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits  attained 
the  highest  average  age,  sixty-five  and  one  half  years, 
and  comprised  more  than  one  fifth  of  the  whole 
number. 

We  will  probably  find  more  old  men  on  farms  than 
elsewhere.  There  are  many  reasons  why  farmers  should 
live  longer  than  persons  residing  in  cities  or  than  those 
engaged  in  other  occupations.     Aside  from  the   purer 


VOCATIONS,   GOOD  AND  BAD.  829 

air,  the  outdoor  exercise,  botli  conducive  to  a  good  appe- 
tite and  sound  sleep,  Avliicli  comparatively  few  in  cities 
enjoy,  they  are  free  from  the  attrition,  the  friction, 
harassing  cares,  anxieties,  and  the  keen  competition 
incident  to  city  life.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  some 
great  drawbacks  and  some  enemies  to  longevity,  even  on 
the  farm.  Man  does  not  live  by  bread  alone.  The  mind 
is  by  far  the  greatest  factor  in  maintaining  the  body 
in  a  healthy  condition.  The  social  life  of  the  city,  the 
great  opportunities  afforded  the  mind  for  feeding  upon 
libraries  and  lectures,  great  sermons,  and  constant  asso- 
ciation with  other  minds,  compensate  largely  for  the  loss 
of  many  of  the  advantages  of  farm  life.  In  spite  of 
their  great  temperance  and  immunity  from  things  which 
corrode,  whittle,  and  rasp  away  life  in  the  cities,  farmers 
in  many  places  do  not  live  so  long  as  scientists  and  some 
other  professional  men. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  aspiration  and  success  tend  to 
prolong  life.  Prosperity  tends  to  longevity,  if  we  do  not 
wear  life  away  or  burn  it  out  in  the  feverish  pursuit  of 
wealth.  Thomas  W.  Higginson  made  a  list  of  thirty 
of  the  most  noted  preachers  of  the  last  century,  and 
found  that  their  average  length  of  life  was  sixty-nine 
years. 

Among  miners  in  some  sections  over  six  hundred  out 
of  one  thousand  die  from  consumption.  In  the  prisons 
of  Europe,  where  the  fatal  effects  of  bad  air  and  filth 
are  shown,  over  sixty-one  per  cent,  of  the  deaths  are 
from  tuberculosis.  In  Bavarian  monasteries,  fifty  per 
cent,  of  those  who  enter  in  good  fiealth  die  of  consump- 
tion; in  the  Prussian  prisons,  it  is  almost  the  same. 
The  effect  of  bad  air,  filth,  and  bad  food  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  the  death-rate  among  these  classes,  between 
the  ages  of  twenty  and  forty,  is  five  times  that  of  the 
general  population  of  the  same  age.  In  New  York  city, 
in  1892,  over  one  fifth  of  all  the  deaths  of  persons  over 
twenty  were  from  this  cause.     In  large  cities  in  Europe 


330  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  percentage  is  often  still  greater.  Of  one  tliousand 
deaths  from  all  causes,  on  the  average,  one  hundred  and 
three  farmers  die  of  pulmonary  tuberculosis,  one  hun- 
dred and  eight  fishermen,  one  hundred  and  twenty-one 
gardeners,  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  farm  laborers, 
one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  grocers,  two  hundred  and 
nine  tailors,  three  hundred  and  one  dry-goods  dealers, 
four  hundred  and  sixty-one  compositors,  —  nearly  one 
half. 

According  to  a  long  series  of  investigations  by  Drs. 
Benoysten  and  Lombard  into  occupations  or  trades 
where  workers  must  inhale  dust,  it  appears  that  min- 
eral dust  is  the  most  detrimental  to  health,  animal  dust 
ranking  next,  and  vegetable  dust  third. 

In  choosing  an  occupation,  cleanliness,  pure  air,  sun- 
light, and  freedom  from  corroding  dust  and  poisonous 
gases  are  of  the  greatest  importance.  A  man  who 
would  sell  a  year  of  his  life  for  any  amount  of  money 
w^ould  be  considered  insane,  and  yet  we  deliberately 
choose  occupations  and  vocations  which  statistics  and 
physicians  tell  us  will  be  practically  sure  to  cut  off 
from  five  to  twenty-five,  thirty,  or  even  forty  years  of 
our  lives. 

There  is  danger  in  a  calling  which  requires  great  ex- 
penditure of  vitality  at  long,  irregular  intervals.  He 
who  is  not  regularly,  systematically  employed  incurs 
perpetual  risk.  "  Of  the  thirty-two  all-round  athletes 
in  a  New  York  club  of  six  years  ago,"  said  a  physician 
in  1895,  "  three  are  dead  of  consumption,  five  have  to 
wear  trusses,  four  or  five  are  lop-shouldered,  and  three 
have  catarrh  and  partial  deafness."  Dr.  Patten,  chief 
surgeon  at  the  National  Soldiers'  Home  at  Dayton, 
Ohio,  says  that  "  of  the  five  thousand  soldiers  in  that 
institution  fully  eighty  per  cent,  are  suffering  from 
heart  disease  in  one  form  or  another,  due  to  the  forced 
physical  exertions  of  the  campaigns." 

Man's  faculties  and  functions  are  so  interrelated  that 


VOCATIONS,   GOOD  AND  BAD.  331 

whatever  affects  one  affects  all.  Athletes  who  over- 
develop the  muscular  system  do  so  at  the  expense  of 
the  physical,  mental,  and  moral  well-being.  It  is  a  law 
of  nature  that  the  over-development  of  any  function  or 
faculty,  forcing  or  straining  it,  tends  not  only  to  ruin  it, 
but  the  injury  reacts  injuriously  on  every  other  faculty 
and  function. 

Vigorous  thought  must  come  from  a  fresh  brain.  We 
cannot  expect  nerve,  snap,  robustness  and  vigor,  spright- 
liness  and  elasticity,  in  the  speech,  in  the  book,  or  in 
the  essay,  from  an  exhausted,  jaded  brain.  The  brain 
is  one  of  the  last  organs  of  the  body  to  reach  maturity 
(at  about  the  age  of  twenty-eight),  and  should  never  be 
overworked,  especially  in  youth.  The  whole  future  of 
a  man  is  often  ruined  by  over-straining  the  brain  in 
school. 

Brain-workers  cannot  do  good,  effective  work  in  one 
line  many  hours  a  day.  When  the  brain  is  weary,  when 
it  begins  to  lose  its  elasticity  and  freshness,  there  will 
be  the  same  lack  of  tonicity  and  strength  in  the  brain 
product.  Some  men  often  do  a  vast  amount  of  literary 
work  in  entirely  different  lines  during  their  spare  hours. 
The  set  of  faculties  exercised  in  their  regular  occupa- 
tion may  be  absolutely  weary  from  the  day's  pressure 
and  excitement ;  and  yet  they  may  be  able  to  do  most 
effective  literary  work  during  the  evening  or  any  spare 
hour  they  may  have,  because  they  bring  into  play  an 
entirely  different  set  of  faculties  which  have  been  rest- 
ing while  the  others  have  been  in  action. 

Cessation  of  brain  activity  does  not  necessarily  con- 
stitute brain  rest,  as  most  great  thinkers  know.  The 
men  who  accomplish  the  most  brain-work,  sooner  or 
later  —  usually  later,  unfortunately  —  learn  to  give 
rest  to  one  set  of  faculties  and  use  another,  as  the  in- 
terest begins  to  flag  and  a  sense  of  weariness  comes.  In 
this  way  they  have  been  enabled  to  astonish  the  world 
by  their  mental  achievements,  which  is  very  largely  a 


332  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

matter  of  skill  in  exercising  alternate  sets  of  faculties, 
allowing  rest  to  some  while  giving  healthy  exercise  to 
others.  The  continual  use  of  one  set  of  faculties  by  an 
ambitious  worker  will  soon  bring  him  to  grief.  No 
set  of  brain  cells  can  possibly  set  free  more  brain  force 
in  the  combustion  of  thought  than  is  stored  up  in  them. 
The  tired  brain  must  have  rest,  or  nervous  exhaustion, 
brain  fever,  or  even  softening  of  the  brain  is  liable  to 
follow. 

The  brain  gets  credit  for  a  great  deal  that  is  really 
due  to  a  strong  physique.  When  Wesley  entered  on 
his  eighty-second  birthday  he  said,  "  I  find  myself 
just  as  strong  to  labor  and  as  fit  for  exercise  in  body 
and  mind  as  I  was  forty  years  ago."  At  eighty- 
three  he  said,  "  I  am  a  wonder  to  myself.  It  is  now 
twelve  years  since  I  have  felt  any  such  sensation  as 
weariness."  Mathews  says  that  to  the  strong  hand 
and  strong  head,  the  capacious  lungs  and  vigorous 
frame,  fall,  and  will  ahvays  fall,  the  heavy  burdens ; 
and  where  the  heavy  burdens  fall  the  great  prizes  fall 
too. 

As  a  rule,  physical  vigor  is  the  condition  of  a  great 
career.  What  would  Gladstone  have  accomplished  with 
a  weak,  puny  physique  ?  He  addresses  an  audience  at 
Corfu  in  Greek,  and  another  at  Florence  in  Italian. 
A  little  later  he  converses  at  ease  with  Bismarck  in 
German,  or  talks  fluent  French  in  Paris,  or  piles  up 
argument  on  argument  in  English  for  hours  in  Parlia- 
ment. There  are  families  that  have  '^  clutched  success 
and  kept  it  through  generations  from  the  simple  fact  of 
a  splendid  physical  organization  handed  down  from  one 
generation  to  another." 

John  Quincy  Adams  could  bathe  in  the  Potomac  in 
midwinter.  A  strong  mind  in  a  weak  body  has  been 
compared  to  a  splendid  knife-blade  in  a  weak  handle. 
The  temper  of  the  blade  may  be  ever  so  true,  its  edges 
ever  so  keen,  yet  if  there  is  lacking  means  to  wield  it, 


VOCATIONS,  GOOD  AND  BAD.  333 

its  efficiency  is  lost.  As  a  rule,  a  strong  will,  clear  grit, 
pluck,  stamina,  and  power  of  decision,  accompany  strong 
muscles,  firm  nerves,  and  a  vigorous  body. 

All  occupations  that  enervate,  paralyze,  or  destroy 
body  or  soul  should  be  avoided.  Our  manufacturing 
interests  too  often  give  little  thought  to  the  employed ; 
the  article  to  be  made  is  generally  the  only  object  con- 
sidered. They  do  not  care  if  a  man  spends  the  whole 
of  his  life  upon  the  head  of  a  pin,  or  in  making  a  screw 
in  a  watch  factory.  They  take  no  notice  of  the  occupa- 
tions that  ruin,  of  the  phosphorus,  the  dust,  the  arsenic 
that  destroys  the  health,  that  shortens  the  lives  of  many 
workers ;  of  the  cramped  condition  of  the  body  which 
creates  deformity. 

Geikie  says  :  "  You  may  win  in  one  way  and  lose  in 
another.  You  may  buy  gold  too  dear ;  if  you  give 
health  for  it,  you  make  a  poor  bargain.  If  you  sell 
your  freedom  for  it,  you  give  pearls  for  a  bauble.  If 
you  give  your  soul  for  it,  your  self-respect,  your  peace, 
your  manhood,  your  character,  you  pay  too  much  for 
it." 

Thousands  in  our  large  cities  are  actually  driven  by 
necessity  into  surroundings  and  occupations  which  per- 
vert their  natures  and  undermine  their  characters. 

The  moment  we  compel  those  we  employ  to  do  work 
that  demoralizes  them  or  does  not  tend  to  elevate  or 
lift  them,  we  are  forcing  them  into  service  worse  than 
useless.  '^  If  we  induce  painters  to  work  in  fading  colors, 
or  architects  with  rotten  stone,  or  contractors  to  con- 
struct buildings  with  imperfect  materials,  we  are  forcing 
our  Michael  Angelos  to  carve  in  snow." 

Euskin  says  that  the  tendency  of  the  age  is  to  expend 
its  genius  in  perishable  art,  as  if  it  were  a  triumph  to 
burn  its  thoughts  away  in  bonfires.  Is  the  work  you 
compel  others  to  do  useful  to  yourself  and  to  society  ? 
If  you  employ  a  seamstress  to  make  four  or  five  or  six 
beautiful  flounces  for  your  ball  dress,  flounces  which 


334  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

will  only  clothe  yourself,  and  wliich  you  will  wear  at 
only  one  ball,  you  are  employing  your  money  selfishly. 
Do  not  confuse  covetousness  with  benevolence,  nor 
cheat  yourself  into  thinking  that  all  the  finery  you  can 
Avear  is  so  much  put  into  the  hungry  mouths  of  those 
beneath  you.  It  is  what  those  who  stand  shivering  on 
the  street,  forming  a  line  to  see  you  ste^)  out  of  your 
carriage,  know  it  to  be.  These  fine  dresses  do  not 
mean  that  so  much  has  been  put  into  their  mouths,  but 
that  so  much  has  been  taken  out  of  their  mouths. 

Select  a  clean,  useful,  honorable  occupation.  If  there 
is  any  doubt  on  this  point,  abandon  it  at  once,  for  famil- 
iarity with  bad  business  will  make  it  seem  good. 
Choose  a  business  that  has  expansiveness  in  it.  Some 
kinds  of  business  a  Gould  could  not  make  successful, 
nor  a  Peabody  respectable.  Choose  an  occupation  which 
will  develop  you ;  which  will  elevate  you ;  which  will 
give  you  a  chance  for  self-improvement  and  promotion. 
You  may  not  make  quite  so  much  money,  but  you  will 
be  more  of  a  man,  and  vianhood  is  above  all  riches,  over- 
tojys  all  titles,  and  character  is  greater  than  any  career. 
If  possible  avoid  occupations  which  compel  you  to  work 
in  a  cramped  position,  or  where  you  must  work  nights 
and  Sundays.  Don't  try  to  justify  yourself  on  the 
ground  that  somebody  must  do  this  kind  of  work.  Let 
"  somebody,"  not  yourself,  take  the  responsibility. 
Aside  from  the  right  and  wrong  of  the  thing,  it  is  in- 
jurious to  the  health  to  work  seven  days  in  the  week,  to 
work  nights  when  Nature  intended  you  to  sleep,  or  to 
sleep  days  when  she  intended  you  to  work. 

Many  a  man  has  dwarfed  his  manhood,  cramped  his 
intellect,  crushed  his  aspiration,  blunted  his  finer  sensi- 
bilities, in  some  mean,  narrow  occupation  just  because 
there  was  money  in  it. 

Have  an  ambition  to  be  remembered,  not  as  a  great 
lawyer,  doctor,  merchant,  scientist,  manufacturer, 
scholar,  but  as  a  great  man,  every  inch  a  king. 


VOCATIONS,   GOOD  AND  BAD.  335 

"  Study  yourself/'  says  Longfellow,  "  and,  most  of  all, 
note  well  wherein  kind  nature  meant  you  to  excel.'^ 

Dr.  Mathews  says  that  "to  no  other  cause,  perhaps, 
is  failure  in  life  so  frequently  to  be  traced  as  to  a  mis- 
taken calling."  We  can  often  find  out  what  we  cannot 
do  by  hard  knocks  and  repeated  failures,  before  we 
find  out  what  we  can  do.  This  negative  process  of 
eliminating  the  doubtful  chances  is  often  the  only  way 
of  attaining  to  the  positive  conclusion. 

How  many  men  have  been  made  ridiculous  for  life  by 
choosing  law  or  medicine  or  theology,  simply  because 
they  are  "  honorable  professions  ! ''  These  men  might 
have  been  respectable  farmers  or  merchants,  but  are 
"  nobodies  "  in  such  vocations.  The  very  glory  of  the 
profession  which  they  thought  would  make  them  shin- 
ing lights  simply  renders  more  conspicuous  their  inca- 
pacity. 

Thousands  of  youth  receive  an  education  that  fits 
them  for  a  profession  which  they  have  not  the  means 
or  inclination  to  follow,  and  that  unfits  them  for  the 
conditions  of  life  to  which  they  were  born.  Unsuccess- 
ful students  with  a  smattering  of  everything  are  raised 
as  much  above  their  original  condition  as  if  they  Avere 
successful.  It  is  a  significant  fact  that  a  large  portion 
of  Paris  cabmen  are  unsuccessful  students  in  theology 
and  other  professions  and  disfrocked  priests.  They  are 
very  bad  cabmen. 

"  Tompkins  forsakes  his  last  and  awl 
For  literary  squabbles ; 
Styles  himself  poet ;  but  his  trade 
Remains  the  same,  —  he  cobbles." 

Don't  choose  a  profession  or  occupation  because  your 
father,  or  uncle,  or  brother  is  in  it.  Don't  choose  a 
business  because  you  inherit  it,  or  because  parents  or 
friends  want  you  to  follow  it.  Don't  choose  it  because 
others  have  made  fortunes  in  it.  Don't  choose  it 
because   it  is  considered  the   "  proper  thing "   and  a 


336  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  genteel  "  business.  The  mania  for  a  "  genteel  "  occu- 
pation, for  a  "  soft  job "  which  eliminates  drudgery, 
thorns,  hardships,  and  all  disagreeable  things,  and  one 
which  can  be  learned  with  very  little  effort,  ruins  many 
a  youth. 

When  we  try  to  do  that  for  which  we  are  unfitted 
we  are  not  working  along  the  line  of  our  strength,  but 
of  our  weakness  ;  our  will  power  and  enthusiasm  be- 
come demoralized  ;  we  do  half  work,  botched  work,  lose 
confidence  in  ourselves,  and  conclude  that  we  are 
dunces  because  we  cannot  accomplish  what  others  do ; 
the  whole  tone  of  life  is  demoralized  and  lowered  be- 
cause we  are  out  of  place. 

How  it  shortens  the  road  to  success  to  make  early  a 
wise  choice  of  one's  occupation,  to  be  started  on  the 
road  of  a  proper  career  while  young,  full  of  hope,  while 
the  animal  spirits  are  high,  and  enthusiasm  is  vigor- 
ous ;  to  feel  that  every  step  we  take,  that  every  day's 
work  we  do,  that  every  blow  we  strike  helps  to 
broaden,  deepen,  and  enrich  life  ! 

Those  who  fail  are,  as  a  rule,  those  who  are  out  of 
their  places.  A  man  out  of  his  place  is  but  half  a 
man;  his  very  nature  is  perverted.  He  is  working 
against  his  nature,  rowing  against  the  current,  and  it  is 
only  a  question  of  time  when  he  will  fail.  When  his 
strength  is  exhausted  he  will  float  down  the  stream. 
A  man  cannot  succeed  when  his  whole  nature  is  enter- 
ing its  perpetual  protest  against  his  occupation.  To 
succeed,  his  vocation  must  have  the  consent  of  all  his 
faculties ;  they  must  be  in  harmony  with  his  purpose. 

Has  a  young  man  a  right  to  choose  an  occupation 
which  will  only  call  into  play  his  lower  and  inferior 
qualities,  as  cunning,  lying,  overreaching,  letting  all  his 
nobler  qualities  shrivel  and  die  ?  Has  he  a  right  to 
select  a  vocation  that  will  develop  only  the  beast  within 
him  instead  of  the  man  ?  which  will  call  out  the  bull- 
dog qualities  only,  the  qualities   which  overreach  and 


VOCATIONS,  GOOD  AND  BAD.  337 

grasp,  the  qualities  which  get  and  never  give  ?  which 
develop  long-headedness  only,  while  all  his  higher  self 
atrophies  ? 

The  best  way  to  choose  an  occupation  is  to  ask  your- 
self the  question,  "  What  would  humanity  do  with  me 
if  they  were  to  consider  my  qualifications  and  adapta- 
tions, and  place  me  to  the  best  possible  advantage  to 
themselves  ?  "  The  Norwegian  precept  is  a  good  one : 
"  Give  thyself  wholly  to  thy  fellow-men ;  they  will  give 
thee  back  soon  enough."  We  can  do  the  most  possible 
for  ourselves  when  we  are  in  a  position  where  we  can 
do  the  most  possible  for  others.  We  are  doing  the  most 
for  ourselves  and  for  others  when  we  are  in  a  position 
which  calls  into  play  in  the  highest  possible  way  the 
greatest  number  of  our  best  faculties  ;  in  other  words, 
we  are  succeeding  best  for  ourselves  when  we  are  suc- 
ceeding best  for  others.  We  have  no  right  to  choose 
our  occupation  from  a  selfish  standpoint.  When  we 
cheat  others  we  are  cheating  ourselves. 

The  time  will  come  when  there  will  be  institutions 
for  determining  the  natural  bent  of  the  boy  and  girl ; 
where  men  of  large  experience  and  close  observation 
will  study  the  natural  inclination  of  the  youth,  help 
him  to  find  where  his  greatest  strength  lies,  and  how  to 
use  it  to  the  best  advantage.  Even  if  we  take  for 
granted,  what  is  not  true,  that  every  youth  will  sooner 
or  later  discover  the  line  of  his  greatest  strength  so 
that  he  may  get  his  living  by  his  strong  points  rather 
than  by  his  weak  ones,  the  discovery  is  often  made  so 
late  in  life  that  great  success  is  practically  impossible. 
Such  institutions  would  help  boys  and  girls  to  start  in 
their  proper  careers  early  in  life ;  and  an  early  choice 
shortens  the  way.  Can  anything  be  more  important  to 
human  beings  than  a  start  in  life  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, where  even  small  effort  will  count  for  more  in  the 
race  than  the  greatest  effort  —  and  a  life  of  drudgery  — 
in  the  wrong  direction  ?  A  man  is  seldom  unsuccessful 
or  unhappy  when  he  is  in  his  place. 


338  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

After  once  choosing  your  occupation,  however,  never 
look  backward  ;  stick  to  it  with  all  the  tenacity  you  can 
muster.  Let  nothing  tempt  you  or  swerve  you  a  hair's 
breadth  from  your  aim,  and  you  will  win.  Do  not  let 
the  thorns  which  appear  in  every  vocation,  or  temporary 
despondency  or  disappointment,  shake  your  purpose. 
You  will  never  succeed  while  smarting  under  the 
drudgery  of  your  occupation,  if  you  are  constantly 
haunted  with  the  idea  that  you  could  succeed  better  in 
something  else.  Great  tenacity  of  purpose  is  the  only 
thing  that  will  carry  you  over  the  hard  places,  which 
appear  in  every  career,  to  ultimate  triumph.  This  de- 
termination, or  fixity  of  purpose,  has  a  great  moral  bear- 
ing upon  our  success,  for  it  leads  others  to  feel  confi- 
dence in  us,  and  this  is  everything.  It  gives  credit  and 
moral  support  in  a  thousand  ways.  People  always  be- 
lieve in  a  man  with  a  fixed  purpose,  and  will  help  him 
twice  as  quickly  as  one  who  is  loosely  or  indifferently 
attached  to  his  vocation,  and  liable  at  any  time  to  make 
a  change,  or  to  fail.  Everybody  knows  that  determined 
men  are  not  likely  to  fail.  They  carry  in  their  very 
pluck,  grit,  and  determination  the  conviction  and  assur- 
ance of  success. 

The  world  does  not  dictate  what  you  shall  do,  but  it 
does  demand  that  you  do  something,  and  that  you  shall 
be  king  in  your  line.  There  is  no  grander  sight  than 
that  of  a  young  man  or  woman  in  the  right  place  strug- 
gling with  might  and  main  to  make  the  most  of  the 
stuff  at  command,  determined  that  not  a  faculty  or 
power  shall  run  to  waste.  Not  money,  not  position, 
but  power  is  what  we  want ;  and  character  is  greater 
than  any  occupation  or  profession. 

"  Do  not,  I  beseech  you,"  said  Garfield,  '^  be  content 
to  enter  on  any  business  that  does  not  require  and  com- 
pel constant  intellectual  groAvth."  Choose  an  occupa- 
tion that  is  refining  and  elevating;  an  occupation  that 
you  will  be  proud  of ;  an  occupation  that  will  give  you 


VOCATIONS,  GOOD  AND  BAD.  339 

time  for  self-culture  and  self-elevation  ;  an  occupation 
that  will  enlarge  and  expand  your  manhood  and  make 
you  a  better  citizen,  a  better  man. 

Power  and  constant  growth  toward  a  higher  life  are 
the  great  end  of  human  existence.  Your  calling  should 
be  the  great  school  of  life,  the  great  man-developerj 
character-builder,  that  which  should  broaden,  deepen, 
and  round  out  into  symmetry,  harmony,  and  beauty,  all 
the  God-given  faculties  within  you. 

But  whatever  you  do  be  greater  than  your  calling  ;  let 
your  manhood  overtop  your  position,  your  wealth,  your 
occupation,  your  title.  A  man  must  work  hard  and 
study  hard  to  counteract  the  narrowing,  hardening  ten- 
dency of  his  occu]3ation.     Said  Goldsmith,  — 

"  Burke,  born  for  the  universe,  narrowed  his  mind, 
And  to  party  gave  up  what  was  meant  for  mankind." 

"  Constant  engagement  in  traftic  and  barter  has  no 
elevating  influence,"  says  Lyndall.  "  The  endeavor  to 
obtain  the  upper  hand  of  those  with  whom  we  have  to 
deal,  to  make  good  bargains,  the  higglhig  and  schem- 
ing, and  the  thousand  petty  artifices,  which  in  these 
days  of  stern  competition  are  unscrupulously  resorted 
to,  tend  to  narrow  the  sphere  and  to  lessen  the  strength 
of  the  intellect,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  delicacy  of 
the  moral  sense.  The  consequence  is  that  mental  and 
moral  obligations  have  been  overlooked  and  slighted. 
We  would  see  the  spirit  of  religion  introduced  into  busi- 
ness, and  the  method  and  perseverance  of  business  car- 
ried into  religion." 

But  choose  upward,  study  the  men  in  the  vocation 
you  think  of  adopting.  Does  it  elevate  those  Avho  fol- 
low it  ?  Are  they  broad,  liberal,  intelligent  men  ?  Or 
have  they  become  mere  appendages  of  their  profession, 
living  in  a  rut  with  no  standing  in  the  community,  and 
of  no  use  to  it  ?  Don't  think  you  will  be  the  great  ex- 
ception, and  can  enter  a  questionable  vocation  without 
becoming  a  creature  of  it.     In  spite  of  all  your  determi- 


340  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE, 

nation  and  will  power  to  the  contrary,  your  occupation, 
from  the  very  law  of  association  and  habit,  will  seize 
you  as  in  a  vise,  will  mould  you,  shape  you,  fashion  you, 
and  stamp  its  inevitable  impress  upon  you. 

How  often  we  have  seen  bright,  open-hearted,  gener- 
ous, young  men  come  out  of  college  with  high  hopes 
and  lofty  aims,  enter  a  doubtful  vocation,  and  in  a  few 
years  come  back  to  college  commencement  so  changed 
that  they  are  scarcely  recognized.  The  once  broad, 
generous  features  have  become  contracted  and  narrowed. 
The  man  has  become  grasping,  avaricious,  stingy,  mean, 
hard.  Is  it  possible,  we  ask,  that  a  few  years  could  so 
change  a  magnanimous  and  generous  youth  ?  He  is  all 
"  on  the  make  "  now.  His  public  spirit  and  generosity 
are  all  lost  in  his  little  money-making  schemes  and  he 
cares  for  nothing  else. 

"  I  say  to  you  plainly  there  is  no  end  to  which  your 
practical  faculty  can  aim  so  sacred  or  so  large  that,  if 
pursued  for  itself,  will  not  at  last  become  carrion  and  an 
offense  to  the  nostrils.  The  imaginative  faculty  of  the 
soul  must  be  fed  with  objects  immense  and  eternal. 
Your  end  should  be  one  inapprehensible  to  the  senses ; 
then  will  it  be  a  god  always  approached,  —  never 
touched  ;  always  giving  health.  A  man  adorns  himself 
with  prayer  and  love,  as  an  aim  adorns  an  action." 

Go  to  the  bottom  if  you  would  get  to  the  top.  Be 
master  of  your  calling  in  all  its  details.  Nothing  is 
small  which  concerns  your  business.  This  was  the 
secret  of  Alexander  T.  Stewart's  great  success.  When 
the  foreman  in  his  New  York  establishment  died,  the 
porter  applied  for  the  place.  "  Why,  you  are  nothing 
but  a  i)orter,"  said  Stewart.  "  I  know  it,  but  I  have 
watched  this  business  and  I  know  its  details,  and  I  can 
fill  the  position."  Stewart  refused  him.  The  porter 
obtained  a  position  in  another  house  and  finally  bought 
out  the  whole  business. 

Thousands  of  men  who  have  been  failures  in  life  have 


VOCATIONS,  GOOD  AND  BAD.  341 

done  drudgery  enough  in  half  a  dozen  different  occu- 
pations to  have  enabled  them  to  reach  great  success,  if 
their  efforts  had  all  been  expended  in  one  direction. 
That  mechanic  is  a  failure  who  starts  out  to  build  an 
engine,  but  does  not  quite  accomplish  it,  and  shifts  into 
some  other  occupation  where,  x^erhaps,  he  will  almost 
succeed  again,  but  stops  just  short  of  the  point  of  pro- 
ficiency in  his  acquisition  and  so  fails  again.  The  world 
is  full  of  people  who  are  "  almost  a  success."  They 
stop  just  this  side  of  success.  Their  courage  oozes  out 
just  before  they  become  expert.  How  many  of  us  have 
acquisitions  which  remain  permanently  unavailable  be- 
cause not  carried  quite  to  the  point  of  skill  ?  How 
many  people  "  almost  know  a  language  or  two,"  which 
they  can  neither  write  nor  speak  ;  a  science  or  two  whose 
elements  they  have  not  quite  acquired ;  an  art  or  two 
partially  mastered,  but  which  they  cannot  practice  with 
satisfaction  or  profit !  The  habit  of  desultoriness,  which 
has  been  acquired  by  allowing  yourself  to  abandon  a 
half-finished  work,  more  than  balances  any  little  skill 
gained  in  one  vocation  which  might  possibly  be  of  use 
later. 

Beware  of  that  fatal  gift,  versatility.  Many  a  per- 
son misses  being  a  great  man  by  splitting  into  two 
middling  ones.  Universality  is  the  ignis  fatuus  which 
has  deluded  to  ruin  many  a  promising  mind.  In  at- 
tempting to  gain  a  knowledge  of  half  a  hundred  sub- 
jects it  has  mastered  none.  "The  jack-at-all-trades," 
one  of  the  foremost  manufacturers  of  this  country  says, 
"  had  a  chance  in  my  generation.    In  this  he  has  none." 

"  The  measure  of  a  man's  learning  will  be  the  amount 
of  his  voluntary  ignorance,"  said  Thoreau.  If  we  go 
into  a  factory  where  the  mariner's  compass  is  made  we 
can  see  the  needles  before  they  are  magnetized,  and  they 
will  point  in  any  direction.  But  when  they  have  been 
applied  to  the  magnet  and  received  its  peculiar  power, 
from  that  moment  they  point  to  the  north,  and  are  true 


342  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

to  the  pole  ever  after.  So  man  never  points  steadily 
in  any  direction  until  he  has  been  polarized  by  a  choice 
of  his  ideal  career. 

The  man  with  a  vocation  he  likes,  the  practical  man, 
the  energetic  and  industrious  man,  builds  a  house  upon 
the  ground,  while  the  dreamer  builds  a  castle  in  the  air, 
and  he  lays  up  a  few  thousands  in  the  bank  while  the 
other  revels  in  imaginary  millions.  The  dreamer's  pock- 
ets are  full  while  he  is  asleep,  but  he  awakens  only  to 
find  an  empty  purse.  It  takes  a  good  many  dreams  of 
fortune  to  make  an  actual  dollar. 

Give  your  life,  your  energy,  your  enthusiasm,  all  to 
the  highest  work  of  which  you  are  capable.  Canon 
Farrar  said,  "  There  is  only  one  real  failure  in  life  pos- 
sible, and  that  is,  not  to  be  true  to  the  best  one  knows.'' 

"  Let  men  of  all  ranks,"  said  Plato,  "  whether  they 
are  successful  or  unsuccessful,  whether  they  triumph  or 
not,  let  them  do  their  duty  and  rest  satisfied." 

*'  What  must  I  do  to  be  forever  known  ?    Thy  duty  ever." 

"  It  is  a  hapjoy  thing  for  us  that  this  is  all  we  have 
to  concern  ourselves  about  —  what  to  do  next,"  says 
George  Macdonald.  "  No  man  can  do  the  second  thing. 
He  can  do  the  first." 

Who  does  the  best  his  circumstance  allows, 
Does  well,  acts  nobly,  angels  could  do  no  more. 

Young. 

"  Whoever  can  make  two  ears  of  corn,  two  blades  of 
grass  to  grow  uj^on  a  spot  of  ground  where  only  one 
grew  before,"  says  Swift,  "  would  deserve  better  of  man- 
kind and  do  more  essential  service  to  his  country  than 
the  whole  race  of  politicians  put  together." 

Emerson  says,  "  There  is  at  this  moment  for  you  an 
utterance  brave  and  grand  as  that  of  the  colossal  chisel 
of  Phidias,  or  trowel  of  the  Egyptians,  or  the  pen  of 
Moses  or  Dante,  but  different  from  all  these." 


GtORGE  STEPHEISISON 
"We  should  as  soon  expect  the  people  of  Woolwich  to  suffer  themselves  to  be 
fired  off  upon  one  of  Congreve's  rockets  as  to  trust  themselves  to  the  mercy  of  such 
a  machiue  going  at  such  a  rate.  We  trust  that  Parliament  will  limit  the  speed 
(of  railroad  engines)  to  eiglit  or  nine  miles  an  hour,  which  we  entirely  agree  with 
Mr.  Sylvester  is  as  great  as  can  be  ventured  upon."  —  Quarterly  Enieic. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    MAN    WITH    AN    IDEA. 

He  who  wishes  to  fulfill  his  mission  must  be  a  man  of  one  idea,  that  is, 
of  one  great  overmastering  purpose,  overshadowing  all  his  aims,  and  guid- 
ing and  controlling  his  entire  life.  — Bate. 

A  healthful  hunger  for  a  great  idea  is  the  beauty  and  blessedness  of 
life.  —  Jean  Ingelow. 

A  profound  conviction  raises  a  man  above  the  feeling  of  ridicule.  —  J. 
Stuart  Mill. 

Ideas  go  booming  through  the  world  louder  than  cannon.  Thoughts 
are  mightier  than  armies.  Principles  have  achieved  more  victories  than 
horsemen  or  chariots.  —  W.  M.  Paxton. 

Yet  nerve  thy  spirit  to  the  proof,  and  blench  not  at  thy  chosen  lot; 
The  timid  good  may  stand  aloof,  the  sage  may  frown,  —  yet  faint  thou 

not: 
Nor  heed  the  shaft  too  surely  cast,  the  foul  and  hissing  bolt  of  scorn ; 
For  with  thy  side  shall  dwell,  at  last,  the  victory  of  endurance  born. 

Bryant. 

"  What  are  you  bothering  yourselves  with  a  knitting- 
machine  for  ?  "  asked  Ari  Davis,  of  Boston,  a  manufac- 
turer of  instruments ;  "  why  don't  you  make  a  sewing- 
machine  ?  ''  His  advice  had  been  sought  by  a  rich 
man  and  an  inventor  who  had  reached  their  wits'  ends 
in  the  vain  attempt  to  produce  a  device  for  knitting 
woolen  goods.  "  I  wish  I  could,  but  it  can't  be  done." 
"  Oh,  yes  it  can,"  said  Davis  ;  "  I- can  make  one  myself." 
"  Well,"  the  capitalist  replied,  "  you  do  it,  and  I  '11  in- 
sure you  an  independent  fortune."  The  words  of  Davis 
were  uttered  in  a  spirit  of  jest,  but  the  novel  idea  found 
lodgment  in  the  mind  of  one  of  the  workmen  who  stood 
by,  a  mere  youth  of  twenty,  who  was  thought  not  ca- 
pable of  a  serious  idea. 

But   Elias   Howe   was    not    so   rattle-headed  as   he 


344  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

seemed,  and  the  more  the  youth  reflected,  the  more  de- 
sirable such  a  machine  appeared  to  him.  Four  years 
passed,  and  with  a  wife  and  three  children  to  support  in 
a  great  city  on  a  salary  of  nine  dollars  a  week,  the  light- 
hearted  boy  had  become  a  thoughtful,  plodding  man. 
The  thought  of  the  sewing-machine  haunted  him  night 
and  day,  and  he  finally  resolved  to  produce  one. 

After  months  wasted  in  the  effort  to  work  a  needle 
pointed  at  both  ends,  with  the  eye  in  the  middle,  that 
should  pass  up  and  down  through  the  cloth,  suddenly 
the  thought  flashed  through  his  mind  that  another  stitcli 
must  be  possible,  and  with  almost  insane  devotion  he 
worked  night  and  day,  until  he  had  made  a  rough  model 
of  wood  and  wire  that  convinced  him  of  ultimate  suc- 
cess. In  his  mind's  eye  he  saw  his  idea,  but  his  own 
funds  and  those  of  his  father,  who  had  aided  him  more 
or  less,  were  insufficient  to  embody  it  in  a  working  ma- 
chine. But  help  came  from  an  old  schoolmate,  George 
Fisher,  a  coal  and  wood  merchant  of  Cambridge.  He 
agreed  to  board  Elias  and  his  family  and  furnish  five 
hundred  dollars,  for  which  he  was  to  have  one  half  of 
the  patent,  if  the  machine  proved  to  be  worth  patenting. 
In  May,  1845,  the  machine  was  completed,  and  in 
July  Elias  Howe  sewed  all  the  seams  of  two  suits  of 
woolen  clothes,  one  for  Mr.  Fisher  and  the  other  for 
himself.  The  sewing  outlasted  the  cloth.  This  ma- 
chine, which  is  still  preserved,  will  sew  three  hundred 
stitches  a  minute,  and  is  considered  more  nearly  perfect 
than  any  other  prominent  invention  at  its  first  trial. 
There  is  not  one  of  the  millions  of  sewing-machiues 
now  in  use  that  does  not  contain  some  of  the  essential 
principles  of  this  first  attempt. 

When  it  was  decided  to  try  and  elevate  Chicago  out 
of  the  mud  by  raising  its  immense  blocks  up  to  grade, 
the  young  son  of  a  poor  mechanic,  named  George  M. 
Pullman,  appeared  on  the  scene,  and  put  in  a  bid  for  the 
great  undertaking,  and  the  contract  was  awarded  to  him. 


THE  MAN   WITH  AN  IDEA.  345 

He  not  only  raised  the  blocks,  but  did  it  in  such  a  way 
that  business  within  them  was  scarcely  interrupted. 
All  this  time  he  was  revolving  in  his  mind  his  pet 
project  of  building  a  "sleeping  car"  which  would  be 
adopted  on  all  railroads.  He  fitted  up  two  old  cars  on 
the  Chicago  and  Alton  road  with  berths,  and  soon  found 
they  would  be  in  demand.  He  then  went  to  work  on  the 
princi]3le  that  the  more  luxurious  his  cars  were,  the 
more  would  be  the  demand  for  them.  After  spending 
three  years  in  Colorado  gold  mines,  he  returned  and 
built  two  cars  which  cost  ^18,000  each.  Everybody 
laughed  at  "  Pullman's  folly."  But  Pullman  believed 
that  whatever  relieved  the  tediousness  of  long  trips 
would  meet  with  speedy  approval,  and  he  had  faith 
enough  in  his  idea  to  risk  his  all  in  it. 

Pullman  is  a  great  believer  in  the  commercial  value  of 
beauty.  The  wonderful  town  which  he  built  and  which 
bears  his  name,  as  well  as  his  magnificent  cars,  is  an 
example  of  his  belief  in  this  principle.  He  counts  it  a 
good  investment  to  surround  his  employees  with  com- 
forts and  beauty  and  good  sanitary  conditions,  and  so 
the  town  of  Pullman  is  a  model  city  of  cleanliness,  order, 
and  comfort. 

It  has  ever  been  the  man  with  an  idea,  which  he  puts 
into  practical  effect,  who  has  changed  the  face  of  Chris- 
tendom. The  germ  idea  of  the  steam  engine  can  be  seen 
in  the  writings  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  but  it  was 
not  dev«eloped  until  more  than  two  thousand  years  later. 

It  was  an  English  blacksmith,  Newcomen,  with  no  op- 
portunities, who  in  the  seventeenth  century  conceived 
the  idea  of  moving  a  piston  by  the  elastic  force  of  steam  ; 
but  his  engine  consumed  thirty  pounds  of  coal  in  pro- 
ducing one  horse  power.  The  perfection  of  the  modern 
engine  is  largely  due  to  James  Watt,  a  poor,  uneducated 
Scotch  boy,  who  at  fifteen  walked  the  streets  of  London 
in  a  vain  search  for  work.  A  professor  in  the  Glasgow 
University  gave  him  the  use  of  a  room  to  work  in,  and 


346  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

while  waiting  for  jobs  he  experimented  with  old  vials 
for  steam  reservoirs  and  hollow  canes  for  pipes,  for  he 
could  not  bear  to  waste  a  moment.  He  improved 
Newcomen's  engine  by  cutting  off  the  steam  after  the 
piston  had  completed  a  quarter  or  a  third  of  its  stroke, 
and  letting  the  steam  already  in  the  chamber  expand 
and  drive  the  piston  the  remaining  distance.  This  saved 
nearly  three  fourths  of  the  steam.  Watt  suffered  from 
pinching  poverty  and  hardships  which  would  have  dis- 
heartened ordinary  men  ;  but  he  was  terribly  in  earnest, 
and  his  brave  wife  Margaret  begged  him  not  to  mind 
her  inconvenience,  nor  be  discouraged.  "  If  the  engine 
will  not  work,''  she  wrote  him  while  struggling  in  Lon- 
don, "  something  else  will.     Never  despair." 

''  I  had  gone  to  take  a  walk,"  said  AVatt,  "  on  a  fine 
Sabbath  afternoon,  and  had  passed  the  old  washing- 
house,  thinking  upon  the  engine  at  the  time,  when  the 
idea  came  into  my  head  that,  as  steam  is  an  elastic  body, 
it  would  rush  into  a  vacuum,  and  if  a  communication 
were  made  between  the  cylinder  and  an  exhausted  ves- 
sel, it  would  rush  into  it,  and  might  be  there  condensed 
without  cooling  the  cylinder."  The  idea  was  simple, 
but  in  it  lay  the  germ  of  the  first  steam  engine  of  much 
practical  value.  Sir  James  Mackintosh  places  this  poor 
Scotch  boy  who  began  with  only  an  idea  "  at  the  head 
of  all  inventors  in  all  ages  and  all  nations." 

See  George  Stephenson,  working  in  the  coal  pits  for 
sixpence  a  day,  patching  the  clothes  and  mending  the 
boots  of  his  fellow-workmen  nights,  to  earn  a  little 
money  to  attend  a  night  school,  giving  the  first  money 
he  ever  earned,  $150,  to  his  blind  father  to  pay  his 
debts  with.  People  say  he  is  crazy ;  his  "  roaring  steam 
engine  will  set  the  house  on  fire  with  its  sparks ;  " 
"  smoke  will  pollute  the  air ;  "  "  carriage  makers  and 
coachmen  will  starve  for  want  of  work."  For  three 
days  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  plies 
questions  to  him.     This  was  one  of  them  :  "  If  a  cow 


THE  MAN  WITH  AN  IDEA.  347 

get  on  the  track  of  the  engine  traveling  ten  miles  an 
hour,  will  it  not  be  an  awkward  situation  ?  "  "  Yes, 
very  awkward,  indeed,  for  the  coo,"  replied  Stephenson. 
A  government  inspector  said  that  if  a  locomotive  ever 
went  ten  miles  an  hour,  he  would  undertake  to  eat  a 
stewed  engine  for  breakfast.  "  What  can  be  more  pal- 
pably absurd  and  ridiculous  than  the  prospect  held  out 
of  locomotives  traveling  twice  as  fast  as  horses  ?  "  asked 
a  writer  in  the  English  "  Quarterly  Review  "  for  March, 
1825.  "  We  should  as  soon  expect  the  people  of  Wool- 
wich to  suffer  themselves  to  be  fired  off  upon  one  of 
Congreve's  rockets  as  to  trust  themselves  to  the  mercy 
of  such  a  machine,  going  at  such  a  rate.  We  trust  that 
Parliament  will,  in  all  the  railways  it  may  grant,  limit 
the  speed  to  eight  or  nine  miles  an  hour,  which  we  en- 
tirely agree  with  Mr.  Sylvester  is  as  great  as  can  be 
ventured  upon.''  This  article  referred  to  Stephensou's 
proposition  to  use  his  newly  invented  locomotive  instead 
of  horses  on  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester  Railroad, 
then  in  process  of  construction.  The  company  referred 
the  matter  to  two  leading  English  engineers,  who  re- 
ported that  steam  would  be  desirable  only  when  used 
in  stationary  engines  one  and  a  half  miles  apart,  draw- 
ing the  cars  by  means  of  ropes  and  pulleys.  But  Ste- 
phenson persuaded  them  to  test  his  idea  by  offering  a 
prize  of  about  twenty-five  hundred  dollars  for  the  best 
locomotive  produced  at  a  trial  to  take  place  October  6, 
1829.  On  the  eventful  day,  long  waited  for,  thousands 
of  spectators  assembled  to  watch  the  competition  of 
four  engines,  the  "  Xovelty,"  th^  "  Rocket,"  the  "  Per- 
severance," and  the  '^  Sanspareil."  The  "  Perseverance  " 
could  make  but  six  miles  an  hour,  and  so  was  ruled  out, 
as  the  conditions  called  for  at  least  ten.  The  "  Sanspa- 
reil "  made  an  average  of  fourteen  miles  an  hour,  but  as 
it  burst  a  water-pipe  it  lost  its  chance.  The  "  Novelty  " 
did  splendidly,  but  also  burst  a  pipe,  and  was  crowded 
out,  leaving  the  "  Rocket  "  to  carry  off  the  honors  with 


348  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

an  average  speed  of  fifteen  miles  an  liour,  the  highest 
rate  attained  being  twenty-nine.  This  was  Stephenson's 
locomotive,  and  so  fnlly  vindicated  his  theory  that  the 
idea  of  stationary  engines  on  a  railroad  was  completely 
exploded.  He  had  picked  up  the  fixed  engines  which 
the  genius  of  Watt  had  devised,  and  set  them  on  wheels 
to  draw  men  and  merchandise,  against  the  most  direful 
predictions  of  the  foremost  engineers  of  his  day. 

In  all  the  records  of  invention  there  is  no  more  sad 
or  affecting  story  than  that  of  John  Fitch.  Poor  he  was 
in  many  senses,  poor  in  appearance,  poor  in  spirit.  He 
was  born  poor,  lived  poor,  and  died  poor.  If  there 
ever  was  a  true  inventor,  this  man  was  one.  He  was 
one  of  those  eager  souls  that  would  coin  their  own 
flesh  to  carry  their  point.  He  only  uttered  the  obvious 
truth  when  he  said  one  day,  in  a  crisis  of  his  inven- 
tion, that  if  he  could  get  one  hundred  pounds  by  cutting 
off  one  of  his  legs  he  would  gladly  give  it  to  the 
knife.  He  tried  in  vain  both  in  this  country  and  in 
France  to  get  money  to  build  his  steamboat.  He 
would  say  :  "  You  and  I  will  not  live  to  see  the  day, 
but  the  time  will  come  when  the  steamboat  will  be 
preferred  to  all  other  modes  of  conveyance,  when  steam- 
boats will  ascend  the  Western  rivers  from  New  Orleans 
to  Wheeling,  and  when  steamboats  will  cross  the  ocean. 
Johnny  Fitch  will  be  forgotten,  but  other  men  will 
carry  out  his  ideas  and  grow  rich  and  great  upon 
them."  Poor,  ragged,  and  forlorn,  jeered  at,  pitied  as 
a  madman,  discouraged  by  the  great,  refused  by  the 
rich,  he  kept  on  till,  in  1790,  he  had  the  first  vessel  on 
the  Delaware  that  ever  answered  the  purpose  of  a  steam- 
boat. It  ran  against  the  tide  six  miles  an  hour,  and 
eight  miles  with  the  tide. 

At  noon,  on  Friday,  August  4, 1807,  a  crowd  of  curious 
people  might  have  been  seen  along  the  wharves  of  the 
Hudson  Eiver.  They  had  gathered  to  witness  what  they 
considered  a  ridiculous  failure  of  a  "  crank "  who  pro- 


THE  MAN   WITH  AN  IDEA.  349 

posed  to  take  a  party  of  people  up  the  Hudson  River  to 
Albany  in  what  he  called  a  steam  vessel  named  the  Cler- 
m.ont.  Did  anybody  ever  hear  of  such  a  ridiculous  idea 
as  navigating  against  the  current  up  the  Hudson  in  a 
vessel  without  sails?  "The  thing  will  ^bust,'"  says 
one  ;  "  it  will  burn  up,"  says  another,  and  "  they  will 
all  be  drowned,"  exclaims  a  third,  as  he  sees  vast 
columns  of  black  smoke  shoot  up  with  showers  of  bril- 
liant sparks.  Nobody  present,  in  all  probability,  ever 
heard  of  a  boat  going  by  steam.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
everybody  that  the  man  who  had  fooled  away  his 
money  and  his  time  on  the  Clermont  was  little  better 
than  an  idiot,  and  ought  to  be  in  an  insane  asylum. 
But  the  passengers  get  on  board,  the  plank  is  pulled  in, 
and  the  steam  is  turned  on.  The  walking  beam  moves 
slowly  up  and  down,  and  the  Clermont  floats  out  into 
the  river.  "  It  can  never  go  up  stream,"  the  spectators 
said.  But  it  did  go  up  stream,  and  the  boy,  who  in  his 
youth  said  there  is  nothing  impossible,  had  scored  a 
great  triumph,  and  had  given  to  the  world  the  first 
steamboat  that  had  any  practical  value. 

Notwithstanding  that  Fulton  had  rendered  such  great 
service  to  humanity,  a  service  which  has  revolutionized 
the  commerce  of  the  world,  he  was  looked  upon  by 
many  as  a  public  enemy.  Critics  and  cynics  turned  up 
their  noses  when  Fulton  was  mentioned.  The  severity 
of  the  world's  censure,  ridicule,  and  detraction  has  usu- 
ally been  in  proportion  to  the  benefit  the  victim  has 
conferred  upon  mankind. 

As  the  Clermont  burned  pine^  wood,  dense  columns 
of  fire  and  smoke  belched  forth  from  her  smoke-stack 
while  she  glided  triumphantly  up  the  river,  and  the 
inhabitants  along  the  banks  were  utterly  unable  to 
account  for  the  spectacle.  They  rushed  to  the  shore 
amazed  to  see  a  boat  "  on  fire  "  go  against  the  stream 
so  rapidly  with  neither  oars  nor  sails.  The  noise  of 
her  great  paddle-wheels  increased  the  wonder.     Sailors 


350  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

forsook  their  vessels,  and  fishermen  rowed  home  as 
fast  as  possible  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  the  fire  mon- 
ster. The  Indians  were  as  much  frightened  as  their 
predecessors  were  when  the  first  ship  approached  their 
hunting-ground  on  Manhattan  Island.  The  owners  of 
sailing-vessels  were  jealous  of  the  Clermont,  and  tried 
to  run  her  down.  Others  whose  interests  were  affected 
denied  Fulton's  claim  to  the  invention,  and  brought 
suits  against  him.  But  the  success  of  the  Clermont 
soon  led  to  the  construction  of  other  steamships  all  over 
the  country.  The  government  also  employed  Fulton 
to  aid  in  building  a  powerful  steam  frigate,  which  was 
called  Fulton  the  First.  He  also  built  a  diving  boat 
for  the  government  for  the  discharge  of  torpedoes. 
By  this  time  his  fame  had  spread  all  over  the  civilized 
world,  and  when  he  died,  in  1815,  newspapers  were 
marked  with  black  lines  ;  the  legislature  of  New  York 
wore  badges  of  mourning ;  and  minute  guns  were  fired 
as  the  long  funeral  procession  passed  to  Trinity  Church- 
yard. Very  few  private  persons  were  ever  honored 
with  such  a  burial. 

True,  Dr.  Lardner  had  "  proved  "  to  scientific  men  that 
a  steamship  could  not  cross  the  Atlantic,  but  in  1819 
the  Savannah  from  New  York  appeared  off  the  coast 
of  Ireland  under  sail  and  steam,  having  made  this 
"  impossible  "  passage.  Those  on  shore  thought  that 
a  fire  had  broken  out  below  the  decks,  and  a  king's 
cutter  was  sent  to  her  relief.  Although  the  voyage  was 
made  without  accident,  it  was  nearly  twenty  years  be- 
fore it  was  admitted  that  steam  navigation  could  be 
made  a  commercial  success  in  ocean  traffic. 

As  Junius  Smith  impatiently  paced  the  deck  of  a  ves- 
sel sailing  from  an  English  port  to  New  York,  on  a  rough 
and  tedious  voyage  in  1832,  he  said  to  himself,  "  Why 
not  cross  the  ocean  regularly  in  steamships  ? "  In 
New  York  and  in  London  a  deaf  ear  was  turned  to  any 
such  nonsense.     Smith's  first  encourasrement  came  from 


THE  MAN  WITH  AN  IDEA.  351 

George  Grote,  the  historian  and  banker,  who  said  the 
idea  was  practicable  ;  but  it  was  the  same  old  story,  — 
he  would  risk  no  money  in  it.  At  length  Isaac  Selby,  a 
prominent  business  man  of  London,  agreed  to  build  a 
steamship  of  two  thousand  tons,  the  British  Queen. 
An  unexpected  delay  in  fitting  the  engines  led  the  pro- 
jectors to  charter  the  Sirius,  a  river  steamer  of  seven 
hundred  tons,  and  send  her  to  New  York.  Learning  of 
this,  other  parties  started  from  Bristol  four  days  later 
in  the  Great  Western,  and  both  vessels  arrived  at  New 
York  the  same  day.  Soon  after  Smith  made  the  round 
trip  between  London  and  New  York  in  thirty-two  days. 

What  a  sublime  picture  of  determination  and  patience 
was  that  of  Charles  Goodyear,  of  New  Haven,  buried  in 
poverty  and  struggling  with  hardships  for  eleven  long 
years,  to  make  India  rubber  of  practical  use  !  See  him  in 
prison  for  debt ;  pawning  his  clothes  and  his  wife's  jew- 
elry to  get  a  little  money  to  keep  his  children  (who 
were  obliged  to  gather  sticks  in  the  field  for  fire)  from 
starving.  Watch  his  sublime  courage  and  devotion  to 
his  idea,  when  he  had  no  jnoney  to  bury  a  dead  child 
and  when  his  other  five  were  near  starvation ;  when 
his  neighbors  were  harshly  criticising  him  for  his  neg- 
lect of  his  family  and  calling  him  insane.  But,  behold 
his  vulcanized  rubber  ;  the  result  of  that  heroic  struggle, 
applied  to  five  hundred  uses  by  over  60,000  employees. 

What  a  pathetic  picture  was  that  of  Palissy,  plod- 
ding on  through  want  and  woe  to  rediscover  the  lost 
art  of  enameling  pottery;  building  his  furnaces  with 
bricks  carried  on  his  back,  seeing  his  six  children  die  of 
neglect,  probably  of  starvation,  his  wife  in  rags  and 
despair  over  her  husband's  "  folly  ;  "  despised  by  his 
neighbors  for  neglecting  his  family,  worn  to  a  skeleton 
himself,  giving  his  clothes  to  his  hired  man  because  he 
could  not  pay  him  in  money,  hoping  always,  failing 
steadily,  until  at  last  his  great  work  was  accomplished, 
and  he  reaped  his  reward. 


352  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

German  unity  was  the  idea  engraven  upon  Bismarck's 
heart.  What  cared  this  Herculean  despot  for  the  Diet 
chosen  year  after  year  simply  to  vote*  down  every  meas- 
ure he  proposed  ?  He  was  indifferent  to  all  opposition. 
He  simply  defied  and  sent  home  every  Diet  which  op- 
posed him.  He  could  play  the  game  alone.  To  make 
Germany  the  greatest  power  in  Europe,  to  make  Wil- 
liam of  Prussia  a  greater  potentate  than  Napoleon  or 
Alexander,  was  his  all-absorbing  purpose.  It  mattered 
not  what  stood  in  his  way,  whether  people,  Diet,  or  na- 
tion ;  all  must  bend  to  his  mighty  will.  Germany  must 
hold  the  deciding  voice  in  the  Areopagus  of  the  world. 
He  bluntly  rode  roughshod  over  everybody  and  every- 
thing that  stood  in  his  way,  defiant  of  opposition,  impe- 
rious, irrepressible  ! 

See  the  great  Dante  in  exile,  condemned  to  be  burnt 
alive  on  false  charges  of  embezzlement.  Look  at  his 
starved  features,  gaunt  form,  melancholy,  a  poor  wan- 
derer; but  he  never  gave  up  his  idea;  he  poured  oat  his 
very  soul  into  his  immortal  poem,  ever  believing  that 
right  would  at  last  triumph. 

Columbus  was  exposed  to  continual  scoffs  and  indig- 
nities, being  ridiculed  as  a  mere  dreamer  and  stigma- 
tized as  an  adventurer.  The  very  children,  it  is  said, 
pointed  to  their  foreheads  as  he  passed,  being  taught  to 
regard  him  as  a  kind  of  madman. 

Think  of  an  old  man  and  a  boy  starting  out  to  redeem 
a  world !  Sublime  pluck  and  determination,  that  of 
Mohammed,  working  three  long  years  to  gain  thirteen 
converts,  and  then  calling  a  meeting  of  forty  of  his  kin- 
dred and  telling  them  he  was  going  to  redeem  mankind 
from  the  worship  of  wooden  idols.  Only  one  lad  of  six- 
teen could  be  induced  to  join  him,  Ali,  and  the  meeting 
broke  up  with  laughter  and  ridicule.  But  Mohammed 
went  right  on,  publishing  his  doctrine  to  the  pilgrims 
who  came  to  Mecca,  or  whoever  would  listen  to  him. 
He  was  threatened  with  death,  but  nothing  could  stay 


ROBERT    FULTON 
"The  divine  insanity  of  noble  minds, 
That  never  falters  nor  abates, 
But  labors  and  endures,  and  waits, 
Till  all  that  it  foresees  it  finds, 
Or  what  it  cannot  find,  creates." 


THE  MAN   WITH  AN  IDEA.  353 

his  determination.  He  had  to  hide  in  caves,  and  was 
continually  fleeing  for  his  life,  which  was  in  constant 
danger.  After  thirteen  years  of  great  hardship,  he 
found  forty  men,  one  for  each  of  the  great  tribes,  bound 
together  by  an  oath  to  kill  him.  Over  rocks  and  deserts 
for  two  hundred  miles  he  fled  from  his  enemies.  The 
history  of  the  East  dates  from  this  flight,  —  the  Hegira. 
All  are  familiar  with  his  next  ten  years,  forcing  his  doc- 
trine by  the  sword.  Men  no  longer  laughed  at  the  man 
and  boy  reforming  a  world.  Think  of  the  power  of  an 
idea  or  sentiment  in  the  mind  of  this  persistent  man,  to 
establish  an  empire  larger  than  that  of  Kome  ! 

Every  man  with  an  idea,  with  an  overmastering  pur- 
pose, always  has  a  minority  of  one,  —  one  man  who 
believes  it.  But  Nature  herself  is  the  great  umpire  in 
these  games  where  only  the  fittest  can  survive.  Mo- 
hammed had  an  idea  which  neither  ridicule,  hardships, 
poverty,  nor  humiliating  defeat  could  conquer.  Borne 
up  by  this  purpose,  he  pressed  steadily  on  towards  his 
goal.  What  a  rebuke  to  the  young  man  in  this  land  of 
opportunities,  this  land  of  culture  and  freedom,  that 
such  an  uncultured,  semi-barbarous  son  of  Nature  should, 
single-handed,  force  a  new  faith  upon  a  ridiculing  and 
opposing  world ! 

An  American  was  once  invited  to  dine  with  Oken, 
the  famous  German  naturalist.  To  his  surprise,  they 
had  neither  meats  nor  dessert,  but  only  baked  potatoes. 
Oken  was  too  great  a  man  to  apologize  for  their  simple 
fare.  His  wife  explained,  however,  that  her  husband's 
income  was  very  small,  and  that  they  preferred  to  live 
simply  in  order  that  he  might  obtain  books  and  instru- 
ments for  his  scientific  researches. 

Before  the  discovery  of  ether  it  often  took  a  week,  in 
some  cases  a  month,  to  recover  from  the  enormous  dose, 
sometimes  five  hundred  drops  or  more,  of  laudanum, 
given  to  a  patient  to  deaden  the  pain  during  a  surgical 
operation.    Young  Dr.  Morton  believed  that  there  must 


354  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

be  some  means  provided  by  Nature  to  relieve  human 
suffering  during  these  terrible  operations  ;  but  what 
could  he  do  ?  He  was  not  a  chemist ;  he  did  not  know 
the  properties  of  chemical  substances ;  he  was  not  liber- 
ally educated.  He  did  not  resort  to  books,  however, 
nor  did  he  go  to  scientific  men  for  advice,  but  immedi- 
ately began  to  experiment  with  well-known  substances. 
He  tried  intoxicants  even  to  the  point  of  intoxication, 
but  as  soon  as  the  instruments  were  applied  the  patient 
would  revive.  He  kept  on  experimenting  with  narcot- 
ics in  this  manner  until  at  last  he  found  what  he  sought 
in  ether. 

With  neither  capital  nor  influence,  it  is  not  an  easy 
task  to  achieve  great  success  in  an  undertaking  which 
everybody  around  you  considers  foolish  and  visionary. 
But,  fortunately  for  the  cause  of  human  progress,  there 
are  always  brave  spirits  with  determination  and  mettle 
enough  to  stand  their  ground  and  push  hard,  even  when 
the  world  opposes.  There  is  no  predestination  about 
success. 

Here  is  Frances  Willard,  dominated  by  an  idea,  who 
has  created  a  Woman's  International  Temperance  Union. 
To  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women,  and  their  husbands 
and  mothers,  the  white  ribbon  is  a  symbol  of  a  clean, 
liquorless,  thrifty  home.  That  in  itself  is  a  tremendous 
idea,  and  one  which  is  bound  by  its  very  common  sense 
to  dominate  civilization.  What  a  grand  idea  Bishop 
Vincent  is  working  out  for  the  young  world  in  the  gi- 
gantic Chautauqua  Circle,  Dr.  Clark  in  his  world-wide 
Christian  Endeavor  Movement !  What  a  grand  idea  the 
Methodist  Church  is  working  out  in  the  Epworth  League, 
Edward  Everett  Hale  in  his  little  bands  of  King's  Daugh- 
ters and  Ten  Times  One  is  Ten  !  Here  is  Clara  Barton 
who  has  created  the  Red  Cross  Society,  which  is  loved 
by  all  nations.  She  noticed 'in  our  Civil  War  that  the 
Confederates  were  shelling  the  hospitals.  She  thought 
it  the  last  touch  of  cruelty  to  fight  what  could  n't  fight 


THE  MAN   WITH  AN  IDEA.  355 

back^  and  she  determined  to  have  the  barbarous  custom 
stopped.  Of  course  the  world  laughed  at  this  poor  un- 
aided woman.  But  her  idea  has  been  adopted  by  all 
nations  ;  and  the  enemy  that  aims  a  shot  at  the  tent  or 
building  over  which  flies  the  white  flag  with  the  red 
cross  has  lost  his  last  claim  to  human  consideration. 

Lord  Kelvin,  who  stands  at  the  head  of  English  men 
of  science,  recently  declared  that  the  greatest  scientific 
event  of  the  year  1894  was  the  discovery  of  a  new  con- 
stituent of  the  atmosphere.  Later  experiments  have 
shown  that  the  new  gas,  which  we  had  all  been  breath- 
ing so  many  centuries  without  knowing  it,  possesses 
very  remarkable  peculiarities.  The  discoverers  were 
trying  by  every  means  in  their  power  to  measure  more 
accurately  than  had  hitherto  been  done  the  density  of 
nitrogen.  It  was  a  tedious  undertaking,  and  Lord 
Kaleigh  had  been  working  at  it  for  twelve  long  years. 
It  was  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  solely  for  its  own  sake, 
and  knowledge,  too,  of  a  kind  that  the  great  public, 
whose  approval  and  admiration  bestow  reputation  and  for- 
tune, would  be  likely  to  pay  very  little  attention  to  after 
it  had  been  acquired.  But  as  the  end  was  approached, 
something  unsought  for  appeared.  The  accuracy  of  the 
work  had  been  so  great  that  Nature,  fairly  followed 
through  all  the  windings  of  her  labyrinth,  yielded  up  a 
secret  —  the  existence  of  an  unknown  gas,  closely  asso- 
ciated with  the  nitrogen  of  the  air,  and  yet  independent 
in  its  properties.  It  is  work  of  this  kind,  no  matter  in 
what  branch  of  human  endeavor,,  that  alone  wins  last- 
ing fame. 

In  all  ages  those  who  have  advanced  the  cause  of 
humanity  have  been  men  and  women  "possessed,"  in 
the  opinion  of  their  neighbors.  Noah  in  building  the 
ark,  Moses  in  espousing  the  cause  of  the  Israelites,  or 
Christ  in  living  and  dying  to  save  a  fallen  race,  incurred 
the  pity  and  scorn  of  the  rich  and  highly  educated,  in 
common  with  all  great  benefactors.     Yet  in  every  age 


356  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

and  in  every  clime  men  and  women  have  been  willing 
to  incur  poverty,  hardship,  toil,  ridicule,  persecution,  or 
even  death,  if  thereby  they  might  shed  light  or  comfort 
upon  the  path  which  all  must  walk  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave.  In  fact,  it  is  doubtful  whether  a  man  can 
perform  very  great  service  to  mankind  who  is  not  per- 
meated with  a  great  purpose  — with  an  overmastering 
idea. 

See  Paul,  a  man  of  marvelous  ability,  who  might  have 
been  a  leader  of  the  Sanhedrim,  yet,  for  the  sake  of  his 
idea,  was  obliged  to  make  tents  for  his  daily  bread. 
Behold  him  in  prison  two  years  at  Csesarea,  a  year  at 
Eome,  beaten  by  many  stripes,  hated  by  the  Jews,  forty 
of  them  taking  a  solemn  oath  not  to  eat  or  drink  until 
they  had  killed  him,  opposed  by  pagans  :  yet  the  great 
idea  which  dominated  his  soul  enabled  him  to  suffer  all 
these  things,  and  to  be  hopeful  and  cheerful,  brave  and 
manly,  through  it  all. 

Jenner  was  the  only  man  who  detected  a  great  prin- 
ciple in  the  remark  of  the  peasant  girl  who  came  to  be 
doctored  :  "  It  cannot  be  small-pox,  because  I  have  had 
cow-pox."  But  it  meant  something  to  him,  and  he 
studied  out  a  grand  theory  for  preventing  the  ravages 
of  a  dreaded  scourge.  His  fellow-students  threatened 
to  expel  him  from  the  medical  school  on  account  of  his 
theory.  He  tried  it  on  his  own  arm  three  times.  He 
experimented  over  three  years,  and  became  convinced 
that  he  was  right.  Not  one  physician  in  London  would 
agree  with  him.  He  was  denounced  from  every  pulpit. 
It  was  said  that  vaccinated  children  became  ox-faced, 
that  abscesses  grew  out  to  indicate  sprouting  horns, 
that  their  voices  changed  to  represent  the  bellowing  of 
a  bull.  The  first  persons  vaccinated  were  actually 
pelted  and  driven  from  the  streets.  But  Jenner  lived 
to  see  his  theory  recognized  all  over  the  world,  and 
died  a  benefactor  to  his  race. 

Beecher  had  to  fight  every  step  of  the  way  to  his  tri- 


THE  MAN  WITH  AN  IDEA.  357 

umph  through  obstacles  which  would  have  appalled  all 
but  the  greatest  characters.  Oftentimes  in  these  great 
battles  for  principles  and  struggles  for  truth,  he  stood 
almost  alone  lighting  popular  prejudice,  narrowness,  and 
bigotry,  uncharitableness  and  envy  even  in  his  own 
church.  But  he  never  hesitated  nor  wavered  when  he 
once  saw  his  duty.  There  was  no  shilly-shallying,  no 
hunting  for  a  middle  ground  between  right  and  wrong, 
no  compromise  on  principles.  He  hewed  close  to  the 
chalk  line  and  held  his  line  p)lumb  to  truth.  He  never 
pandered  for  public  favor  nor  sought  applause.  Duty 
and  truth  were  his  goal,  and  he  went  straight  to  his 
mark.  Other  churches  did  not  agree  with  him  nor  his, 
but  he  was  too  broad  for  hatred,  too  charitable  for  re- 
venge, and  too  magnanimous  for  envy. 

What  tale  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights  "  equals  in  fas- 
cination the  story  of  such  lives  as  those  of  Franklin, 
of  Morse,  Goodyear,  Howe,  Blanchard,  Edison,  Bell, 
Beecher,  Gough,  Mrs.  Stowe,  Amos  Lawrence,  George 
Peabody,  McCormick,  Hoe,  and  scores  of  others,  each 
representing  some  great  idea  embodied  in  earnest  action, 
and  resulting  in  an  improvement  of  the  physical,  men- 
tal, and  moral  condition  of  those  around  them  ? 

There  are  plenty  of  ideas  left  in  the  world  yet. 
Everything  has  n't  been  invented.  All  good  things  have 
not  been  done.  There  are  thousands  of  abuses  to  rec- 
tify, and  each  one  challenges  the  independent  soul, 
armed  with  a  new  idea. 

"  But  how  shall  I  get  ideas  ? "  Keep  your  wits 
open  !  Observe  !  Observe  !  Study  !  Study  !  But  above 
all.  Think  !  Think  !  and  when  a  noble  image  is  indelibly 
impressed  upon  the  mind  —  Act ! 


CHAPTER  XX. 

DECISION. 

Resolve,  and  thou  art  free.  —  Longfellow. 

The  heaviest  charged  words  in  our  language  are  those  briefest  ones, 
"yes"  and  "no."  One  stands  for  the  surrender  of  the  will,  the  other 
for  denial;  one  stands  for  gratification,  the  other  for  character.  A  stout 
"  no  "  means  a  stout  character,  the  ready  "yes  "  a  weak  one,  gild  it  as  we 
may.  —  T.  T.  Hunger. 

The  world  is  a  market  where  everything  is  marked  at  a  set  price,  and 
whatever  we  buy  with  our  time,  labor,  or  ingenuity,  whether  riches,  ease, 
fame,  integrity,  or  knowledge,  we  must  stand  by  our  decision,  and  not  like 
children,  when  we  have  purchased  one  thing,  repine  that  we  do  not  pos- 
sess another  we  did  not  buy.  —  Mathews. 

A  man  must  master  his  undertaking  and  not  let  it  master  him.  He 
must  have  the  power  to  decide  instantly  on  which  side  he  is  going  to  make 
his  mistakes.  —  P.  D.  Armour. 

Once  make  up  your  mind  never  to  stand  waiting  and  hesitating  when 
j'our  conscience  tells  3'ou  what  you  ought  to  do,  and  you  have  got  the  key 
to  ever}'  blessing  that  a  sinner  can  reasonably  hope  for.  —  Keble. 

The  one  thing  that  makes  the  true  artist  is  a  clear  perception  and  a  firm, 
bold  hand,  in  distinction  from  that  imperfect  mental  vision  and  uncertain 
touch  which  gives  us  the  feeble  pictures  and  lumpy  statues  of  the  mere 
artisans  on  canvas  or  in  stone.  —  Holmes. 

Youth  is  the  only  time  to  think  and  decide  on  a  great  course.  Manhood 
with  action  follows;  but  'tis  dreary  to  have  to  alter  one's  whole  life  in  age 
—  the  time  past,  the  strength  gone.  —  Browning. 

Deliberate  with  caution,  but  act  with  decision;  and  yield  with  gracious- 
ness,  or  oppose  with  firmness.  —  Colton. 

When  Eome  was  besieged  by  the  Gauls  in  the  time 
of  the  Eepublic,  the  Romans  were  so  hard  pressed  that 
they  consented  to  purchase  immunity  with  gold.  Thej 
were  in  the  act  of  weighing  it,  a  legend  tells  us,  when 
Camillus  appeared  on  the  scene,  threw  his  sword  into 
the  scales  in  place  of  the  ransom,  and  declared  that  the 


j i''*i'IM 


?S »':„; 


PATRICK    HENRY 
"  Is  life  so  dear  or  peace  so  sweet  as  to  be  purchased  at  the  price  of  chains  and 
slavery  ?    Forbid  it,  Almighty  God.     I  know  not  what  course  others  may  take, 
bvit  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death." 


DECISION.  359 

Romans  slioiild  not  purchase  peace,  but  would  win  it 
with  the  sword.  This  act  of  daring  and  prompt  deci- 
sion so  roused  the  Eomans  that  they  triumphantly 
swept  from  the  sacred  soil  the  enemy  of  their  peace. 

In  an  emergency,  the  arrival  of  a  prompt,  decided, 
positive  man,  who  will  do  something,  although  it  may 
be  wrong,  changes  the  face  of  everything.  Such  a  man 
comes  upon  the  scene  like  a  refreshing  breeze  blown 
down  from  the  mountain  top.  He  is  a  tonic  to  the  hes- 
itating, bewildered  crowd.  Success  seems  to  be  in  his 
atmosphere. 

When  Antiochus  Epiphanes  invaded  Egypt,  which 
was  then  under  the  protection  of  Rome,  the  Romans 
sent  an  ambassador  who  met  Antiochus  near  Alexandria 
and  commanded  him  to  withdraw.  The  invader  gave 
an  evasive  reply.  The  brave  Roman  swept  a  circle 
around  the  king  with  his  sword,  and  forbade  his  crossing 
the  line  until  he  had  given  his  answer.  By  the  prompt 
decision  of  the  intrepid  ambassador  the  invader  was  led 
to  withdraw,  and  war  was  prevented.  The  prompt  deci- 
sion of  the  Romans  won  them  many  a  battle,  and  made 
them  masters  of  the  world.  All  the  great  achievements 
in  the  history  of  the  world  are  the  results  of  quick  and 
steadfast  decision. 

Men  who  have  left  their  mark  upon  their  century 
have  been  men  of  great  and  prompt  decision.  They 
have  been  men  who  "  do  something,  —  and  do  it  at 
once."  An  undecided  man,  a  man  who  is  ever  balan- 
cing between  two  opinions,  forever  debating  which  of 
two  courses  he  will  pursue,  proclaims  by  his  indecision 
that  he  cannot  control  himself,  that  he  was  meant  to  be 
possessed  by  others ;  he  is  not  a  man,  only  a  satellite. 
The  decided  man,  the  prompt  man,  does  not  wait  for 
favorable  circumstances  ;  he  does  not  submit  to  events  ; 
events  must  submit  to  him. 

The  vacillating  man  is  ever  at  the  mercy  of  the  opin- 
ion of  the  man  who  talked  with  him  last.     He  may  see 


360  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  right,  but  he  drifts  toward  the  wrong.  If  he  decides 
upon  a  course  he  only  follows  it  until  somebody  opposes 
it. 

When  Julius  Caesar  came  to  the  Eubicon,  which 
formed  the  boundary  of  Italia,  —  "  the  sacred  and  invio- 
lable," —  even  his  greatest  decision  wavered  at  the 
thought  of  invading  a  territory  which  no  general  was 
allowed  to  enter  without  the  permission  of  the  Senate. 
But  his  alternative  was  "  destroy  myself,  or  destroy  my 
country,''  and  his  intrepid  mind  did  nob  waver  long. 
"  The  die  is  cast,"  he  said,  as  he  dashed  into  the  stream 
at  the  head  of  his  legions.  The  whole  history  of  the 
world  was  changed  by  that  moment's  decision.  The 
man  who  said,  "  I  came,  I  saw,  I  conquered,"  could  not 
hesitate  long.  He,  like  Napoleon,  had  the  power  to 
choose  one  course,  and  sacrifice"  every  conflicting  plan 
on  the  instant.  When  he  landed  with  his  troops  in  Bri- 
tain, the  inhabitants  resolved  never  to  surrender. 
Caesar's  quick  mind  saw  that  he  must  commit  his  sol- 
diers to  victory  or  death.  In  order  to  cut  off  all  hope 
of  retreat,  he  burned  all  the  ships  which  had  borne 
them  to  the  shores  of  Britain.  There  was  no  hope  of 
return,  it  was  victory  or  death.  This  action  was  the 
key  to  the  character  and  triumphs  of  this  great  warrior. 

Satan's  sublime  decision  in  "Paradise  Lost,"  after 
his  hopeless  banishment  from  heaven,  excites  a  feeling 
akin  to  admiration.  After  a  few  moments  of  terrible 
suspense  he  resumes  his  invincible  spirit  and  expresses 
that  sublime  line :  "  What  matter  where,  if  I  be  still 
the  same  ?  " 

That  power  to  decide  instantly  the  best  course  to 
pursue,  and  to  sacrifice  every  opposing  motive;  and, 
when  once  sacrificed,  to  silence  them  forever  and  not 
allow  them  continually  to  plead  their  claims  and  dis- 
tract us  from  our  single  decided  course,  is  one  of  the 
most  potent  forces  in  winning  success.  To  hesitate  is 
sometimes  to  be  lost.     In  fact,  the  man  who  is  forever 


DECISION.  361 

twisting  and  turning,  backing  and  filling,  hesitating 
and  dawdling,  shuffling  and  parleying,  weighing  and 
balancing,  splitting  hairs  over  non-essentials,  listening 
to  every  new  motive  which  presents  itself,  will  never 
accomplish  anything.  There  is  not  positiveness  enough 
in  him;  negativeness  never  accomplishes  anything. 
The  negative  man  creates  no  confidence,  he  only  in- 
vites distrust.  But  the  positive  man,  the  decided  man, 
is  a  power  in  the  world,  and  stands  for  something.  You 
can  measure  him,  gauge  him.  You  can  estimate  the 
work  that  his  energy  will  accomplish. 

It  was  Phil  Sheridan's  quick  decision  that  made  a 
victorious  army  out  of  a  defeated  one.  He  was  many 
miles  away  when  the  booming  of  cannon  told  him  that 
the  army  was  in  the  midst  of  a  hot  battle.  Spurring 
his  horse,  he  made  his  famous  ride  down  the  Winchester 
road,  only  to  meet  his  men  fleeing  from  the  enemy  in  in- 
glorious defeat.  Rising  to  his  full  height  in  his  saddle, 
he  cried,  "  Halt !  halt !  right-about  face,  and  follow  me." 
On,  on,  he  dashed  at  the  head  of  his  forces,  his  quick  de- 
cision remagnetizing  his  men  and  bringing  hope  to  their 
despairing  hearts.  In  a  short  time  the  soldiers  who 
had  been  fleeing  from  the  enemy  with  all  their  might 
were  rushing  upon  the  foe  like  an  avalanche.  They  had 
been  inspired  by  the  invincible  decision  of  their  great 
leader,  and  from  a  miserable  defeat  they  had  gained  a 
proud  victory  over  the  surprised  and  chagrined  foe. 

It  is  related  of  Alexander  the  Great  that,  being  asked 
how  it  was  that  he  had  conquered  the  world,  he  replied, 
"  By  not  wavering." 

When  the  packet  ship  Stephen  Whitney  struck,  at 
midnight,  on  an  Irish  cliff,  and  clung,  for  a  few  mo- 
ments, to  the  cliff,  all  the  passengers  who  leaped  in- 
stantly upon  the  rock  were  saved.  The  positive  step 
landed  them  on  the  rock.  Those  who  lingered  were 
swept  off  by  the  returning  wave,  and  engulfed  forever. 

The   vacillating   man   is  never   a   prompt  man,  and 


362  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

without  promptness  no  success  is  possible.  It  is  the 
man  who  decides  immediately  upon  the  course  he  will 
take  and  what  he  will  sacrifice  that  reaches  the  goal. 
Great  opportunities  not  only  come  seldom  into  the 
most  fortunate  life,  but  they  are  often  quickly  gone. 

"A  man  without  decision,"  says  John  Foster,  "can 
never  be  said  to  belong  to  himself ;  since,  if  he  dared 
to  assert  that  he  did,  the  puny  force  of  some  cause, 
about  as  powerful  as  a  spider,  may  make  a  seizure  of 
the  unhappy  boaster  the  very  next  minute,  and  con- 
temptuously exhibit  the  futility  of  the  determination 
by  which  he  was  to  have  proved  the  independence  of 
his  understanding  and  will.  He  belongs  to  whatever 
can  make  capture  of  him ;  and  one  thing  after  another 
vindicates  its  right  to  him  by  arresting  him  while  he 
is  trying  to  go  on ;  as  twigs  and  chips  floating  near  the 
edge  of  a  river  are  intercepted  by  every  weed  and 
whirled  into  every  little  eddy." 

"As  to  moral  courage,"  said  ISTapoleon,  "I  have 
rarely  met  with  the  two-o'clock-in-the-morning  kind  j  I 
mean  unprepared  courage,  that  which  is  necessary  on 
an  unexpected  occasion ;  and  which,  in  sj^ite  of  the 
most  unforeseen  events,  leaves  full  freedom  of  judgment 
and  decision.'- 

The  punctual  man  not  only  has  the  advantage  of  the 
time  saved  from  dillydallying  and  procrastination,  but 
he  saves  the  energy  and  vital  force  which  is  wasted 
by  the  perplexed  man  who  takes  up  every  argument  on 
one  side  and  then  on  the  other,  and  weighs  them  until 
the  two  sides  hang  in  equipoise,  with  no  preponderating 
motive  to  enable  him  to  decide.  He  is  in  stable  equilib- 
rium, and  so  does  not  move  at  all  of  his  own  volition, 
but  moves  very  easily  at  the  slightest  volition  of  an- 
other. 

Yet  there  is  not  a  man  living  who  might  not  be  a 
prompt  and  decided  man  if  he  would  only  learn  al- 
ways to  act  quickly.     The  punctual  man,  the  decided 


DECISION.  363 

man,  can  do  twice  as  much  as  the  undecided  and  dawd- 
ling man  who  never  quite  knows  what  he  wants.  Prompt 
decision  saved  Napoleon  and  Grant  and  their  armies 
many  a  time  when  delay  would  have  been  fatal.  Na- 
poleon used  to  say  that  although  a  battle  might  last  an 
entire  day,  yet  it  generally  turned  upon  a  few  critical 
minutes,  in  which  the  fate  of  the  engagement  was  de- 
cided. His  will,  which  subdued  nearly  the  whole  of 
Europe,  was  as  prompt  and  decisive  in  the  minutest 
detail  of  command  as  in  the  greatest  battle. 

Decision  of  purpose  and  promptness  of  action  en- 
abled him  to  astonish  the  world  with  his  marvelous 
successes.  He  seemed  to  be  everywhere  at  once.  What 
he  could  accomplish  in  a  day  surprised  all  wlio  knew 
him.  He  seemed  to  electrify  everybody  about  him. 
His  invincible  energy  thrilled  the  whole  army.  He 
could  rouse  to  immediate  and  enthusiastic  action  the 
dullest  troops,  and  inspire  with  courage  the  most  stupid 
men.  The  "ifs  and  buts,"  he  said,  "are  at  present 
out  of  season;  and  above  all  it  must  be  done  with 
speed."  He  would  sit  up  all  night  if  necessary,  after 
riding  thirty  or  forty  leagues,  to  attend  to  correspond- 
ence, dispatches,  and  details.  What  a  lesson  to  dawd- 
ling, shiftless,  half-hearted  men  ! 

Probably  the  sub-officers  and  privates  who  envied 
him  his  success,  and  doubtless  thought  it  depended 
upon  luck,  considered  it  extreme  folly  to  ride  on  his 
return  from  Spain  to  Paris  eighty-five  miles  in  five 
hours  on  horseback.  There  have  been  many  times 
when  a  prompt  decision,  a  rapid-  movement,  and  ener- 
getic action  have  changed  the  very  face  of  history,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  have  been  many  instances 
where  the  indecision  of  generals,  the  procrastination  of 
subordinates,  have  cost  thousands  of  precious  lives  and 
the  loss  of  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  property. 

"  The  doubt  of  Charles  V.,"  says  Motley,  "  changed 
the  destinies  of  the  civilized  world." 


364  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

So  powerful  were  President  Wasliington's  views  in 
determining  the  actions  of  the  people,  that  when  Con- 
gress adjourned,  Jefferson  wrote  to  Monroe  at  Paris : 
"  You  will  see  by  their  proceedings  the  truth  of  what  I 
always  told  you,  —  namely,  that  one  man  outweighs 
them  all  in  influence,  who  supports  his  judgment  against 
their  own  and  that  of  theif  representatives.  Eepubli- 
canism  resigns  the  vessel  to  the  pilot." 

There  is  no  vocation  or  occupation  which  does  not 
present  many  difficulties,  at  times  almost  overwhelming, 
and  the  young  man  who  allows  himself  to  waver  every 
time  he  comes  to  a  hard  place  in  life  will  not  succeed. 
AVithout  decision  there  can  be  no  concentration ;  and, 
to  succeed,  a  man  must  concentrate.  The  undecided 
man  cannot  bring  himself  to  a  focus.  He  dissipates 
his  energy,  scatters  his  forces,  and  executes  nothing. 
He  cannot  hold  to  one  thing  long  enough  to  bring  suc- 
cess out  of  it.  One  vocation  or  occupation  presents  its 
rosy  side  to  him,  he  feels  sure  it  is  the  thing  he 
wants  to  do,  and,  full  of  enthusiasm,  adopts  it  as  his 
life's  work.  But  in  a  few  days  the  thorns  begin  to  ap- 
pear, his  enthusiasm  evaporates,  and  he  wonders  why 
he  is  so  foolish  as  to  think  himself  fitted  for  that  voca- 
tion. The  one  which  his  friend  adopted  is  much  better 
suited  to  him ;  he  drops  his  own  and  adopts  the  other. 
So  he  vacillates  through  life,  captured  by  any  new  oc- 
cupation which  happens  to  appeal  to  him  as  the  most 
desirable  at  the  time,  never  using  his  judgment  or  com- 
mon sense,  but  governed  by  his  impressions  and  his 
feelings  at  the  moment.  Such  people  are  never  led  by 
principle.  You  never  know  where  to  find  them  ;  they 
are  here  to-day  and  there  to-morrow,  doing  this  thing 
and  that  thing,  throwing  away  all  the  skill  they  had 
acquired  in  mastering  the  drudgery  of  the  last  occupa- 
tion. In  fact,  they  never  go  far  enough  in  anything 
to  get  beyond  the  drudgery  stage  to  the  remunerative 
and  agreeable   stage,  the   skillful   stage.     They  spend 


DECISION.  365 

their  lives  at  the  beginnings  of  occupations,  which  are 
always  most  disagreeable.  These  people  rarely  reach 
the  stage  of  competency,  comfort,  and  contentment. 

There  is  a  legend  of  a  powerful  genius  who  promised 
a  lovely  maiden  a  gift  of  rare  value  if  she  would  go 
through  a  field  of  corn,  and,  without  pausing,  going 
backward,  or  wandering  hither  and  thither,  select  the 
largest  and  ripest  ear.  The  value  of  the  gift  was  to  be 
in  proportion  to  the  size  and  perfection  of  the  ear. 
She  passed  by  many  magnificent  ones,  but  was  so  eager 
to  get  the  largest  and  most  perfect  that  she  kept  on 
without  plucking  any  until  the  ears  she  passed  were 
successively  smaller  and  smaller  and  more  stunted. 
Finally  they  became  so  small  that  she  was  ashamed 
to  select  one  of  them;  and,  not  being  allowed  to  go 
backward,  she  came  out  on  the  other  side  without  any. 

Alexander,  his  heart  throbbing  with  a  great  purpose, 
conquers  the  world ;  Hannibal,  impelled  by  his  hatred 
to  the  Eomans,  even  crosses  the  Alps  to  compass  his 
design.  While  other  men  are  bemoaning  difiiculties  and 
shrinking  from  dangers  and  obstacles,  and'  preparing 
expedients,  the  great  soul,  without  fuss  or  noise,  takes 
the  step,  and  lo,  the  mountain  has  been  leveled  and 
the  way  lies  open.  Learn,  then,  to  will  strongly  and 
decisively ;  thus  fix  your  floating  life  and  leave  it  no 
longer  to  be  carried  hither  and  thither,  like  a  withered 
leaf,  by  every  wind  that  blows.  An  undecided  man  is 
like  the  turnstile  at  a  fair,  which  is  in  everybody's 
way  but  stops  no  one. 

"  The  secret  of  the  whole  matter  was,"  replied  Amos 
Lawrence,  "  we  had  formed  the  habit  of  prompt  acting, 
thus  taking  the  top  of  the  tide ;  while  the  habit  of  some 
others  was  to  delay  till  about  half  tide,  thus  getting  on 
the  flats." 

Most  of  the  young  men  and  women  who  are  lost  in 
our  cities  are  ruined  because  of  their  inability  to  say 
"No"   to   the   thousand   allurements  and   temptations 


366  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

which,  appeal  to  their  weak  passions.  If  they  would 
only  show  a  little  decision  at  first,  one  emphatic  "  No  " 
might  silence  their  solicitors  forever.  But  they  are 
weak,  they  are  afraid  of  offending,  they  don't  like  to 
say  "  No,"  and  thus  they  throw  down  the  gauntlet  and 
are  soon  on  the  broad  road  to  ruin.  A  little  resolution 
early  in  life  will  soon  conquer  the  right  to  mind  one's 
own  business. 

An  old  legend  says  that  a  fool  and  a  wise  man  were 
journeying  together,  and  came  to  a  point  where  two 
ways  opened  before  them,  —  one  broad  and  beautiful, 
the  other  narrow  and  rough.  The  fool  desired  to  take 
the  pleasant  way  ;  the  wise  man  knew  that  the  difficult 
one  was  the  shortest  and  safest,  and  so  declared.  But 
at  last  the  urgency  of  the  fool  prevailed  ;  they  took  the 
more  inviting  path,  and  were  soon  met  by  robbers,  who 
seized  their  goods  and  made  them  captives.  A  little 
later  both  they  and  their  captors  were  arrested  by 
officers  of  the  law  and  taken  before  the  judge.  Then 
the  wise  man  pleaded  that  the  fool  was  to  blame  be- 
cause he  desired  to  take  the  wrong  way.  The  fool 
pleaded  that  he  was  only  a  fool,  and  no  sensible  man 
should  have  heeded  his  counsel.  The  judge  punished 
them  both  equally.  "If  sinners  entice  thee,  consent 
thou  not." 

There  is  no  habit  that  so  grows  on  the  soul  as  ir- 
resolution. Before  a  man  knows  what  he  has  done, 
he  has  gambled  his  life  away,  and  all  because  he  has 
never  made  up  his  mind  what  he  would  do  with  it. 
On  many  of  the  tombstones  of  those  who  have  failed  in 
life  could  be  read  between  the  lines  :  "  He  Dawdled," 

"Behind  Time,"  "Procrastination,"  "  Listlessness," 
"  Shiftlessness,"  "  Nervelessness,"  "  Always  Behind." 
Oh,  the  wrecks  strewn  along  the  shores  of  life  "  just 
behind  success,"  "just  this  side   of  happiness,"  above 

which  these  words  of  warning  are  flying  I 

Webster  said  of  such  an  undecided  man  that  "  he  is 


DECISION.  367 

like  the  irresolution  of  the  sea  at  turn  of  tide.  This 
man  neither  advances  nor  recedes  ;  he  simply  hovers." 
Such  a  man  is  at  the  mercy  of  any  chance  occurrence 
that  may  overtake  him.  His  "  days  are  lost  lamenting 
o'er  lost  days."  He  has  no  power  to  seize  the  facts 
which  confront  him  and  compel  them  to  serve  him. 

To  indolent,  shiftless,  listless  people  life  becomes  a 
mere  shufile  of  expedients.  They  do  not  realize  that 
the  habit  of  putting  everything  off  puts  off  their  man- 
hood, their  capacity,  their  success ;  their  contagion  in- 
fects their  whole  neighborhood.  Scott  used  to  caution 
youth  against  the  habit  of  dawdling,  which  creeps  in  at 
every  crevice  of  unoccupied  time  and  often  ruins  a  bright 
life.  "  Your  motto  must  be,"  he  says,  "  Hoc  age,"  —  do 
instantly.  This  is  the  only  way  to  check  the  propensity 
to  dawdling.  How  many  hours  have  been  wasted  dawd- 
ling in  bed,  turning  over  and  dreading  to  get  up.  Many 
a  career  has  been  crippled  by  it.  Burton  could  not 
overcome  this  habit,  and,  convinced  that  it  would  ruin 
his  success,  made  his  servant  promise  before  he  went  to 
bed  to  get  him  up  at  just  such  a  time  ;  the  servant 
called,  and  called,  and  coaxed ;  but  Burton  would  beg 
him  to  be  left  a  little  longer.  The  servant,  knowing 
that  he  would  lose  his  shilling  if  he  did  not  get  him  up, 
then  dashed  cold  water  into  the  bed  between  the  sheets, 
and  Burton  came  out  with  a  bound.  When  one  asked 
a  lazy  young  fellow  what  made  him  lie  in  bed  so  long, 
"  I  am  employed,"  said  he,  "  in  hearing  counsel  every 
morning.  Industry  advises  me  to  get  up  ;  Sloth  to  lie 
still ;  and  they  give  me  twenty  reasons  for  and  against. 
It  is  my  part,  as  an  impartial  judge,  to  hear  all  that  can 
be  said  on  both  sides,  and  by  the  time  the  cause  is  over 
dinner  is  ready." 

There  is  no  doubt  that,  as  a  rule,  great  decision  of 
character  is  usually  accompanied  by  great  constitutional 
firmness.  Men  who  have  been  noted  for  great  firmness 
of  character  have  usually  been  strong  and  robust.    There 


368  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

is  no  quality  of  the  mind  which  does  not  sympathize 
with  bodily  weakness,  and  especially  is  this  true  with 
the  power  of  decision,  which  is  usually  impaired  or 
weakened  from  physical  suffering  or  any  great  physical 
debility.  As  a  rule,  it  is  the  strong  physical  man  who 
carries  weight  and  conviction.  Any  bodily  weakness, 
or  lassitude,  or  lack  of  tone  and  vigor,  is,  perhaps,  first 
felt  in  the  weakened  or  debilitated  power  of  decision. 
Nothing  will  give  greater  confidence  in  a  young  man, 
and  bring  assistance  more  quickly  from  the  bank  or 
from  a  friend,  than  the  reputation  of  promptness.  The 
world  knows  that  the  prompt  man's  bills  and  notes  will 
be  paid  on  the  day,  and  will  trust  him.  "  Let  it  be 
your  first  study  to  teach  the  world  that  you  are  not 
wood  and  straw  ;  that  there  is  some  iron  in  you."  "  Let 
men  know  that  what  you  say  you  will  do  ;  that  your 
decision,  once  made,  is  final,  —  no  wavering ;  that,  once 
resolved,  you  are  not  to  be  allured  or  intimidated." 

Some  minds  are  so  constructed  that  they  are  bewil- 
dered and  dazed  whenever  a  responsibility  is  thrust 
upon  them  ;  they  have  a  mortal  dread  of  deciding  any- 
thing. The  very  effort  to  come  to  immediate  and  un- 
flinching decision  starts  up  all  sorts  of  doubts,  difficul- 
ties, and  fears,  and  they  cannot  seem  to  get  light  enough 
to  decide  nor  courage  enough  to  attempt  to  remove  the 
obstacle.  They  know  that  hesitation  is  fatal  to  enter- 
prise, fatal  to  progress,  fatal  to  success.  Yet  somehow 
they  seem  fated  with  a  morbid  introspection  which  ever 
holds  them  in  suspense.  They  have  just  energy  enough 
to  weigh  motives,  but  nothing  left  for  the  momentum 
of  action.  They  analyze  and  analyze,  deliberate,  weigh, 
consider,  ponder,  but  never  act.  How  many  a  man  can 
trace  his  downfall  in  life  to  the  failure  to  seize  his  op- 
portunity at  the  favorable  moment,  when  it  was  within 
easy  grasp,  the  nick  of  time,  which  often  does  not  pre- 
sent itself  but  once. 

It  was  said  that  Napoleon  had  an  officer  under  him 


DECISION.  369 

who  understood  the  tactics  of  war  better  than  his  com- 
mander, but  he  lacked  that  power  of  rapid  decision  and 
powerful  concentration  which  characterized  the  great- 
est military  leaders  perhaps  of  the  world.  There  were 
several  generals  under  Grant  who  were  as  well  skilled 
in  war  tactics,  knew  the  country  as  well,  were  better 
educated,  but  they  lacked  that  power  of  decision  which 
made  unconditional  surrender  absolutely  imperative 
wherever  he  met  the  foe.  Grant's  decision  was  like 
inexorable  fate.  There  was  no  going  behind  it,  no 
opening  it  up  for  reconsideration.  It  was  his  decision 
which  voiced  itself  in  those  memorable  words  in  the 
Wilderness,  "  I  propose  to  fight  it  out  on  these  lines  if 
it  takes  all  summer,"  and  which  sent  back  the  words 
"  unconditional  surrender  "  to  General  Buckner,  who 
asked  him  for  conditions  of  capitulation,  that  gave  the 
first  confidence  to  the  North  that  the  rebellion  was 
doomed.  At  last  Lincoln  had  a  general  who  had  the 
power  of  decision,  and  the  North  breathed  easy  for  the 
first  time. 

The  man  who  would  forge  to  the  front  in  this  com- 
petitive age  must  be  a  man  of  prompt  and  determined 
decision;  like  Csesar,  he  must  burn  his  ships  behind 
him,  and  make  retreat  forever  impossible.  When  he 
draws  his  sword  he  must  throw  the  scabbard  away,  lest 
in  a  moment  of  discouragement  and  irresolution  he  be 
tempted  to  sheathe  it.  He  must  nail  his  colors  to  the 
mast  as  Nelson  did  in  battle,  determined  to  sink  with 
his  ship  if  he  cannot  conquer.  Prompt  decision  and 
sublime  audacity  have  carried  many  a  successful  man 
over  perilous  crises  where  deliberation  would  have  been 
ruin. 

"  Hoc  ageP 


CHAPTEE  XXI. 

POWER  OF  THE  MIND  OVER  THE  BODY. 

"  God  never  made  his  work  for  man  to  mend." 

Who  knoweth  the  mysteries  of  the  will,  with  its  vigor  ?  For  God  is  but 
a  great  will  pervading  all  things  b}^  nature  of  its  intentness.  Man  doth 
not  yield  himself  to  the  angels,  nor  unto  death  utterly,  save  only  through 
the  weakness  of  his  feeble  will.  — Joseph  Glanvill. 

Health  is  the  holiness  of  the  body.     Girls  should  be  as  much  ashamed  of 
illness,  brought  on  by  their  own  folly,  as  of  being  whipped  by  the  teacher 
for  disobedience.  —Mrs.  Cheney. 
It  is  part  of  the  cure  to  wish  to  be  cured.  —  Seneca. 
'Tis  the  mind  that  makes  the  body  rich.  —  Shakespeare. 
Brave  spirits  are  a  balsam  to  themselves: 
There  is  a  nobleness  of  mind  that  heals 
Wounds  beyond  salves.  Cartwright. 

"  It  is  nothing  but  imagination/^  said  one  to  Napoleon. 
"  Nothing  but  imagination,"  he  rejoined,  "  imagination 
rules  the  world." 

"  I  am  sorry  to  learn  that  you  are  so  sick  that  you 
cannot  possibly  be  in  your  accustomed  place  to-morrow- 
morning,  Miss  Hysee,"  said  the  minister's  wife  condol- 
ingly,  according  to  the  Chicago  "  Tribune  ; "  "  and  I  have 
hurried  over  to  say  that  you  need  not  feel  the  slightest 
uneasiness  about  the  solo  you  were  to  sing  in  the  open- 
ing anthem.  Mr.  Goodman  and  the  chorister  have 
arranged  that  Miss  Gonby  shall  take  the  part,  and  "  — 
"  What  ?  "  The  popular  soprano  of  the  Kev.  Dr.  Good- 
man's church  choir  at  once  sat  bolt  upright  in  bed. 
*'  What !  "  she  screamed.  "  The  old  maid  with  the 
cracked  voice  try  to  sing  my  solo  ?  Never ! "  With 
one  hand  she  tore  the  bandage  off  her  head,  with  the 
other  she  swept  the  medicines  from  the  side  table  to  the 


ALEXANDER    STEPHENS 
"  As  a  man  thiuketh  iu  his  heart,  so  is  he."   The  body  is  luoulded  and  fashioned 
by  the  thought. 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND  OVER   THE  BODY.     371 

floor.  "  Tell  Dr.  Goodman  and  the  chorister,"  she  said, 
in  a  voice  that  rang  through  the  house  like  the  silvery 
tones  of  a  bell,  "to  notify  Miss  Gonby  she  needn't 
mangle  that  solo.     I  '11  be  there." 

A  medical  authority  states  that  a  dog  that  had  just 
died  of  an  acute  disease  was  brought  to  life  by  the 
quick  transfusion  of  fresh  blood  from  another  dog.  He 
stood  erect,  wagged  his  tail  for  a  moment,  and  then  died 
a  second  time.  The  blood  of  four  lambs  was  transfused 
into  a  feeble  horse,  twenty-six  years  old,  and  he  immedi- 
ately manifested  new  life  and  vigor.  So  a  new  thought 
or  sentiment  injected  into  a  mind  deadened  by  ignorance, 
indifference,  inaction,  disease,  error,  or  des23air,  often 
awakens  it  to  new  life,  and  transforms  the  whole  being. 
The  man  seems  completely  "  possessed/^  as  we  say,  and 
feels  that  he  is  the  creature  of  the  idea,  or  sentiment. 
Dominated  by  a  great  idea,  the  weak  become  strong,  the 
timid  brave,  the  vacillating  resolute. 

Latimer,  Eidley,  and  hundreds  of  others  went  to  the 
stake  rejoicing,  the  spectators  wondering  at  the  smile  of 
ineffable  peace  which  illumined  their  faces  above  the 
fierce  glare  of  the  flames,  at  the  hymns  of  praise  and 
thanksgiving  heard  amid  the  roar  of  crackling  fagots. 
As  they  lay  upon  the  burning  coals  where  the  Spaniards 
had  thrown  them  to  make  them  tell  where  the  treasure 
of  the  Mexicans  was  hidden,  Guatemozin  looked  at  his 
emperor  for  permission  to  reveal  the  secret  and  end 
their  torture.  Montezuma  met  the  appealing  look  of 
his  subordinate  with  a  smile,  and  murmured,  "  Am  I  on 
a  bed  of  roses  ?  " 

The  Indian  warrior  under  torment  would  sing  an  ex- 
ulting death  song,  boast  of  his  deeds  of  prowess,  and 
die  Avithout  showing  signs  of  pain. 

A  butcher  in  New  York,  suffering  terrible  agony,  was 
brought  into  a  drug  store.  Investigation  showed  that 
he  had  slipped  and  fallen  from  a  stepladder  upon  a 
sharp  meat-hook  upon  which  he  was  trying  to  hang  a 


372  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

side  of  beef.  He  groaned  in  distress  while  his  clothing 
was  removed.  He  was  pale  and  almost  pulseless,  and 
could  not  be  moved  without  suffering  great  pain.  But 
it  was  found  that  the  hook  had  only  pierced  his  clothing, 
the  man  being  totally  uninjured.  When  he  learned 
this  his  sufferings  ceased  at  once.  His  pain  had  been 
real  to  him  although  caused  wholly  by  his  imagination. 

Physicians  reported  a  case  a  few  years  ago  of  a  poor 
woman  in  Paris  who  was  bitten  by  a  dog  near  Notre 
Dame,  and  taken  to  the  Hotel  Dieu,  where  the  wound 
was  cauterized.  Months  afterward  a  student  met  her 
in  the  street  and  expressed  surprise  to  see  her  alive. 
He  told  her  that  the  dog  which  bit  her  was  mad.  The 
poor  woman  was  seized  immediately  with  spasms  of  the 
most  violent  kind.  Dr.  Bucquoy  was  summoned  at  once, 
but  he  could  do  nothing,  and  she  soon  died. 

Dr.  Chalmers,  riding  on  a  stage-coach  by  the  side  of 
the  driver,  said,  "  John,  why  do  you  hit  that  off  leader 
such  a  crack  with  your  lash  ?  "  "  Away  yonder  there  's 
a  white  stone  ;  that  off  leader  is  afraid  of  that  stone  ; 
so  by  the  crack  of  my  w^hip  and  the  pain  in  his  legs  I 
want  to  get  his  idea  off  from  it."  Dr.  Chalmers  w^ent 
home,  elaborated  the  idea,  and  w^rote  "  The  Expulsive 
Power  of  a  New  Affection."  You  must  drive  off  temp- 
tation by  putting  a  new  idea  into  the  mind. 

Lord  Byron,  when  a  boy,  was  Avarned  by  a  fortune- 
teller that  he  should  die  in  the  thirty -seventh  year  of 
his  age.  That  idea  haunted  him  ;  and  in  his  last  ill- 
ness he  mentioned  it  as  precluding  all  hope  of  his 
recovery.  His  physician  said  that  it  repressed  the  en- 
ergy of  spirit  so  necessary  for  nature  in  struggling  with 
disease. 

Every  physician  of  experience  and  every  reader  of 
medical  history  must  have  been  impressed  many  times 
with  the  power  of  a  mind  thus  dominated  and  swayed 
by  an  idea  or  sentiment,  a  conviction  or  a  resolution,  to 
ward  off  disease  or  arrest  its  progress.     On  the  other 


POWER    OF  THE  MIND   OVER    THE  BODY.      373 

hand,  they  must  have  been  equally  impressed  by  the 
power  of  fear,  or  adverse  convictions,  to  render  the 
body  more  susceptible  to  contract  disease  or  to  hasten 
its  development,  even  to  fatal  termination.  Every 
physician  knows  that  courageous  people,  with  indomita- 
ble will,  are  not  half  as  likely  to  contract  contagious 
diseases  as  the  timid,  the  vacillating,  the  irresolute. 
Napoleon  used  to  visit  the  plague  hospitals  even  when 
the  physicians  dreaded  to  go,  and  actually  put  his  hands 
upon  the  plague-stricken  patients.  He  said  the  man 
who  was  not  afraid  could  vanquish  the  plague. 

Douglas  Jerrold  was  told  by  his  physician  that  he 
must  die.  "What,"  said  he,  "and  leave  a  family  of 
helpless  children  ?  I  won't  die  ! "  And  he  did  not  die 
for  years.  Seneca  had  an  almost  fatal  disease,  but  he 
said,  "  The  thought  of  my  father,  who  could  not  have 
sustained  such  a  blow  as  my  death,  restrained  me,  and 
I  commanded  myself  to  live  ;  "  and  he  did  live.  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  at  fifty-five,  was  deeply  in  debt ;  but, 
though  far  from  being  well,  he  was  determined  to  pay 
every  dollar.  This  resolution  gave  new  courage  to 
every  faculty  of  the  mind  and  every  function  of  the 
body,  and  they  rushed  to  the  rescue  under  the  stimulus. 
Every  nerve  and  fibre  said  the  debt  must  be  paid,  and 
it  was  paid.  It  is  difficult  for  a  disease  to  get  a  foot- 
hold in  a  body  where  such  an  imperious  will  reigns 
supreme.  It  arrests  the  development  of  disease  and 
almost  defies  death. 

"  No,  we  don't  get  sick,"  said  an  actor,  "  because  we 
can't  get  sick.  Patti  and  a  few  other  stars  can  afford 
that  luxury,  but  to  the  majority  of  us  it  is  denied.  It 
is  a  case  of  '  must '  with  us  ;  and  although  there  have 
been  times  when,  had  I  been  at  home,  or  a  private  man, 
I  could  have  taken  to  my  bed  with  as  good  a  right  to 
be  sick  as  any  one  ever  had,  I  have  not  done  so,  and 
have  worn  off  the  attack  through  sheer  necessity.  It 's 
no   fiction  that  will  power  is  the   best  of  tonics,  and 


374  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

theatrical  people  understand  that  they  must  keep  a 
good  stock  of  it  always  on  hand." 

A  tight-rope  walker  was  so  ill  with  lumbago  that  he 
could  scarcely  move.  But  when  he  was  advertised  to 
appear,  he  summoned  all  his  will  power,  and  traversed 
the  rope  several  times  with  a  wheelbarrow,  according 
to  the  programme.  When  through  he  doubled  up  and 
had  to  be  carried  to  his  bed,  "  as  stiff  as  a  frozen  frog." 

"  The  time  will  come,"  says  Humboldt,  "  when  a  sick 
man  will  be  looked  upon  with  the  same  abhorrence  with 
which  we  now  regard  a  thief  or  a  liar,  for  the  reason 
that  the  one  condition  is  as  much  under  the  subjugation 
of  mind  as  the  other,  and  as  susceptible  of  correction 
as  the  other."  While  this  is  an  extreme  view,  there  is 
no  doubt  the  mind  does  have  a  powerful  influence  over 
the  body. 

Sir  John  Lubbock  says  in  "  The  Pleasures  of  Life  "  : 
"  It  is  said  that  the  celebrated  physiognomist,  Campa- 
nella,  could  so  abstract  his  attention  from  any  suffer- 
ings of  his  body,  that  he  was  even  able  to  endure  the 
rack  without  much  pain.  Whoever  has  the  power  of 
concentrating  his  attention  and  controlling  his  will  can 
emancipate  himself  from  most  of  the  minor  miseries  of 
life.  He  may  have  much  cause  for  anxiety,  his  body 
may  be  the  seat  of  severe  suffering,  and  yet  his  mind 
will  remain  serene  and  unaffected  ;  he  may  triumph 
over  care  and  pain." 

The  "Youth's  Companion"  says  in  substance,  that 
the  mysterious  power  of  mind  over  the  body  has  given 
rise  to  a  new  department  in  science  ;  and,  but  recently, 
scientific  experiments  have  been  made  in  order  to  in- 
vestigate Avhat  is  called  the  psychophysical,  or,  in 
simpler  language,  the  soul-physical  phenomena.  It  has 
been  discovered  that  there  is  a  great  chemical  difference 
between  that  sudden,  cold  perspiration  of  a  person  un- 
der a  deep  sense  of  guilt  and  the  ordinary  perspiration  ; 
and  the  state  of  the  mind  can  sometimes  be  actually  de- 


POWER    OF  THE  MIND   OVER    THE  BODY.      375 

termined  by  chemical  analysis  of  this  perspiration,  for 
when  brought  in  contact  with  selenic  acid  it  produces  a 
pink  color  which  cannot  be  obtained  from  ordinary  per- 
spiration. 

Anger  changes  the  chemical  properties  of  the  saliva 
to  a  poison  dangerous  to  life.  It  is  well  known  that 
sudden  and  violent  emotions  have  not  only  whitened 
the  hair  in  a  few  hours,  but  have  caused  death  and  in- 
sanity. One  of  Stanley's  men  was  so  overjoyed  when 
Stanley  announced  that  they  were  nearly  through 
their  hardships  in  the  jungles  of  Africa,  and  were  ap- 
proaching the  opposite  ocean,  that  he  went  crazy  and 
plunged  into  the  wilderness,  never  to  be  seen  again. 
Every  emotion  tends  to  sculpture  the  body  into  beauty 
or  into  ugliness.  Worrying,  fretting,  unbridled  passions, 
petulance,  discontent,  every  dishonest  act,  every  false- 
hood, every  feeling  of  envy,  jealousy,  fear,  —  each  has 
its  effect  on  the  system,  and  acts  deleteriously  like  a 
poison  or  a  deformer  of  the  body.  Professor  James  of 
Harvard,  an  expert  in  the  mental  sciences,  says,  "  Every 
small  stroke  of  virtue  or  vice  leaves  its  ever  so  little 
scar.  Nothing  we  ever  do  is,  in  strict  literalness, 
wiped  out."  We  look  with  pity  and  distrust  upon  the 
man  who  vitiates  his  vitality,  pollutes  and  ruins  his  body 
by  alcohol,  while  we  ourselves  may  be  changing  our 
own  bodies  into  hideous  forms  by  what  seem  to  us  "  in- 
nocent sins."  A  fit  of  anger  may  work  a  greater  dam- 
age to  the  body  and  character  than  a  drunken  bout. 
Hatred  may  leave  worse  scars  upon  a  clean  life  than 
the  bottle.  Jealousy,  envy,  ganger,  uncontrolled  grief 
may  do  more  to  wreck  the  physical  life  than  years  of 
smoking.  Anxiety,  fretting,  and  scolding,  may  instill  a 
more  subtle  poison  into  the  system  than  the  cigarette. 

There  are  many  ways  of  ruining  the  body  besides 
smoking  or  getting  drunk.  Running  for  the  train  may 
injure  the  heart  more  than  the  tqbacco  habit.  The  lack 
of  self-control,  yielding  to  vulgar  indulgences,  and  il- 


376  ARCHITECTS    OF  FATE. 

licit  imaginings,  often  injure  lives  infinitely  more  than 
the  things  which  are  popularly  denounced.  A  sulky 
dog  and  a  bad-tempered  horse  wear  themselves  out  with 
half  the  labor  that  kindly  creatures  do.  An  ugly  cow 
will  not  give  down  her  milk,  and  a  sour  sheep  will  not 
fatten.  Truly  the  great  Hebrew  seer  enunciated  a 
wonderful  chemistry  when  he  said,  "  As  righteousness 
tendeth  to  life,  so  he  that  pursueth  evil  pursueth  it  to 
his  own  death." 

No  one  thing  contributes  more  to  health  or  success 
than  a  strong,  vigorous  will.  It  is  a  perpetual  health 
tonic,  physically  and  mentally.  It  braces  the  system, 
enabling  it  to  endure  hardships,  disappointments,  and 
disease.  It  is  a  balance  wheel ;  it  unifies  and  steadies 
all  the  movements  and  functions  of  the  body  and  mind, 
and  wards  off  the  destructive  shocks  which  often  wrench 
unbalanced  minds  from  their  orbits,  and  produce  dis- 
cord instead  of  harmony.  The  will  power  is  the  great 
executive  in  the  republic  of  the  brain  ;  and  if  this  ruler 
be  weak  and  vacillating,  there  will  be  no  order  or  har- 
mony in  mind  or  body.  This  executive  rules  with  an 
iron  hand,  with  a  grasp  upon  all  the  faculties  which 
secure  regularity  and  order  and  harmony  both  in  the 
physical,  the  mental,  and  moral  realm.  A  weak  ruler 
cannot  execute  even  good  laws,  and  uncertaiDty  and 
anarchy  must  ever  reign  in  his  dominion. 

"  Give  me  a  great  thought  that  I  may  quicken  myself 
with  it,"  said  Herder  to  his  son  as  he  lay  near  death. 
Newton  at  Cambridge  would  sit  up  all  night  on  some 
difficult  mathematical  problem,  and  would  seem  refreshed 
in  the  morning  by  his  great  triumph. 

Next  to  the  power  of  the  will  to  ward  off  disease  or 
maintain  health  is  the  might  of  conviction  or  belief. 
The  London  "  Lancet,"  the  leading  medical  journal  in  the 
world,  says  an  English  lady  was  disappointed  in  love 
when  quite  young,  and  became  insane.  She  lost  all 
consciousness  of  the  passage  of  time.     Nothing  could 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND   OVER    THE  BODY.      377 

persuade  her  that  she  was  uot  living  in  the  very  hour 
when  her  lover  left  her.  She  stood  by  the  window  day 
after  day  and  month  after  month,  waiting  for  his  return. 
The  conviction  that  she  was  still  young  kept  her  from 
growing  old  in  appearance.  Americans  who  saw  her  a 
few  years  ago  declared  that  she  was  not  over  twenty 
years  of  age,  and  yet  she  is  seventy-five.  What  a 
power  there  is  in  mind  to  carry  youth  into  age,  if  we 
only  knew  how  to  use  it ! 

Fear  often  kills  even  the  robust,  while  courage  is  a 
great  invigorator.  An  English  criminal,  blindfolded 
and  laid  upon  a  table  by  physicians,  Avas  made  to  be- 
lieve that  he  was  bleeding  to  death,  when  only  warm 
water  was  trickling  from  his  arm,  which  was  slightly 
scratched,  but  not  enough  to  draw  blood.  The  man  died 
in  a  short  time  from  fear.  Could  the  bandage  have 
been  removed  one  instant,  so  that  he  might  see  that 
the  vessel  contained  water  instead  of  blood,  he  would 
have  recovered  immediately. 

In  Philadelphia  several  medical  students  agreed  to 
experiment  upon  a  companion.  On  meeting  him,  each 
would  ask  him  what  was  the  matter,  adding  that  he 
looked  very  sick,  or  some  similar  remark.  The  young 
man  went  to  bed  sick  and  in  a  few  days  died.  Another 
man  in  a  hospital  was  made  to  believe  that  a  patient 
had  just  died  of  cholera  in  the  same  bed  he  was  occupy- 
ing. The  alleged  symptoms  of  the  man  who  had  died 
were  described  minutely,  and  soon  similar  symptoms 
were  manifested  by  the  listening  patient,  and  he  died, 
although  the  whole  story  was  a  fabrication.  A  man  in 
Providence,  R.  I.,  while  engaged  in  putting  down  a  car- 
pet in  July,  1891,  drank  from  a  goblet  in  which  tacks 
had  been  placed,  and,  on  being  told  of  this  fact,  was  at 
once  afflicted  with  great  pain  from  a  tack  lodging  in  his 
throat.  He  tried  in  vain  to  remove  it,  but  the  swelling 
increased,  inflammation  set  in,  and  he  consulted  a  doctor. 
The  latter  sent  him  for  treatment  to  a  hospital,  where  a 


378  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

careful  examination  showed  that  no  tack  had  lodged 
there.  The  pain  at  once  disappeared,  and  the  man  felt 
no  further  annoyance  from  the  mythical  tack. 

In  Marshall  College,  Aberdeen,  I  think  it  was,  the  stu- 
dents made  the  janitor  believe  they  were  going  to  exe- 
cute him.  They  bound  him,  blindfolded  him,  laid  his 
head  upon  a  block,  and  quickly  drew  a  wet  cloth  across 
his  neck  when,  to  their  amazement,  they  found  that  he 
was  dead.  Not  long  ago  a  prisoner  was  to  be  executed 
in  France,  and  although  he  did  not  show  the  slightest 
signs  of  fear  until  he  came  in  front  of  the  ghastly  in- 
strument of  death,  yet,  when  he  glanced  upward  at  it, 
he  turned  deathly  pale  and  at  the  same  time  his  body  be- 
came apparently  lifeless.  He  was  lifted  upon  the  bas- 
cule, where  he  lay  for  twenty  awful  seconds,  when  the 
knife  fell.  The  blood  did  not  spurt  eight  or  ten  feet  as 
is  usual  in  such  cases.  The  physicians  found  the  heart 
filled  with  coagulated  blood,  which  proved  that  he  was 
dead  before  the  knife  fell. 

The  chief  personage  in  one  of  Moliere's  best  plays, 
"  Le  Malade  Imaginaire,"  is  a  hypochondriac  who  pre- 
tends to  be  dead.  On  the  fourth  night  of  the  perform- 
ance of  this  piece  Moliere  represented  that  characoer, 
and  consequently  in  one  of  the  scenes  was  obliged  to 
act  the  part  of  a  dead  man.  "  It  has  been  said,"  con- 
tinues Bayle,  "  that  he  expired  during  that  paru  of  his 
play  where  he  is  told  to  make  an  end  of  his  feint ;  but 
he  could  neither  speak  nor  rise,  for  he  was  dead." 

Great  apparent  suffering  is  often  entirely  relieved 
upon  the  arrival  of  a  physician,  especially  in  the  coun- 
try towns  where  it  is  difficult  to  obtain  a  doctor  at 
once. 

The  captured  Texans  in  the  Santa  Fe  expedition  had 
marched  until  they  seemed  nearly  dead  from  exhaus- 
tion ;  yet,  being  told  that  any  one  who  should  prove  un- 
able to  walk  would  be  shot,  they  set  off  at  a  good  pace, 
which  they  kept  up  all  day. 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND   OVER    THE  BODY.      379 

Ambroise  Pare,  describing  the  comet  of  1520,  says, 
"  This  comet  was  so  horrible  and  dreadful  that  it  en- 
gendered great  terror  to  the  people,  so  that  many  died, 
some  with  fear,  others  with  illness." 

A  poor  fellow  once  went  to  hang  himself,  but  finding 
by  chance  a  pot  of  money,  he  flung  away  the  rope  and 
went  hurriedly  home.  He  that  hid  the  gold,  when  he 
missed  it,  hanged  himself  with  the  rope  which  the  other 
man  had  left.  Success  is  a  great  tonic,  and  failure  a 
great  depressant. 

The  successful  attainment  of  what  the  heart  longs 
for,  as  a  rule,  improves  health  and  happiness.  Gen- 
erally we  not  only  find  our  treasure  where  our  heart 
is,  but  our  health  also.  Who  has  not  noticed  men  of 
indifferent  health,  perhaps  even  invalids,  and  men 
who  lacked  energy  and  determination,  suddenly  become 
roused  to  a  realization  of  unthought-of  powers  and  un- 
expected health  upon  attaining  some  signal  success  ? 
The  same  is  sometimes  true  of  persons  in  poor  health 
who  have  suddenly  been  thrown  into  responsible  posi- 
tions by  death  of  parents  or  relatives,  or  who,  upon  sud- 
den loss  of  property,  have  been  forced  to  do  what  they 
had  thought  impossible  before. 

An  education  is  a  health  tonic.  Delicate  boys  and 
girls  often  improve  in  health  in  school  and  college, 
whom- parents  and  friends  thought  entirely  too  slender 
to  bear  the  strain.  Other  things  equal,  intelligent,  cul- 
tured, educated  people  enjoy  the  best  health.  There  is 
for  the  same  reason  a  very  intimate  relation  between 
health  and  morals.  A  house  divided  against  itself 
cannot  stand.  Intemperance,  violation  of  chastity,  and 
vice  of  all  kinds  are  discordant  notes  which  tend  to 
destroy  the  great  harmony  of  life.  The  body  is  but  a 
servant  of  the  mind.  A  well-balanced,  cultured,  and 
well-disciplined  intellect  reacts  very  powerfully  upon 
the  physique,  and  tends  to  bring  it  into  harmony  with 
itself.    On  the  other  hand,  a  weak,  vacillating,  one-sided, 


380  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE, 

unsteady,  and  ignorant  mind  will  ultimately  bring  the 
body  into  sympathy  with  it.  Every  pure  and  uplifting 
thought,  every  noble  aspiration  for  the  good  and  the 
true,  every  longing  of  the  heart  for  a  higher  and  better 
life,  every  lofty  purpose  and  unselfish  endeavor,  reacts 
upon  the  body,  makes  it  stronger,  more  harmonious,  and 
more  beautiful. 

Emperor  Dom  Pedro,  while  lying  sick  in  Europe,  re- 
ceived a  telegram  from  his  daughter  acting  as  regent, 
saying  that  she  had  "  signed  a  decree,  totally,  univer- 
sally, and  forever  abolishing  slavery  in  Brazil."  The 
reaction  from  the  news  that  the  dream  of  his  life  was 
realized  restored  him  completely. 

The  power  of  great  thoughts  and  grand  sentiments  to 
refine  the  face  and  manner,  to  lift  man  above  his  sur- 
roundings and  preserve  him  from  the  debility  common 
to  age,  is  marvelous.  We  see  this  longevity  power  illus- 
trated in  great  scientists,  great  reformers,  and  great 
statesmen. 

No  one  can  live  a  gormandizing,  sordid,  or  licentious 
life,  and  still  Avear  a  countenance  hallowed  and  sancti- 
fied with  a  halo  of  peace  and  joy.  Tlte  whole  face  puts 
on  mourning  for  the  death  of  self  respect.  Vicious  com- 
panions will  very  quickly  transfer  their  wicked  expres- 
sions to  the  faces  of  their  victims. 

Anger  in  the  mother  may  poison  her  nursing  child, 
causing  illness  and  even  convulsions.  What  must  be  the 
influence  of  a  mother's  passions  upon  foetal  life  if  even 
the  secretions  are  so  affected  ?  Rarey,  the  great  horse 
tamer,  said  that  an  angry  word  would  sometimes  raise 
the  pulse  of  a  horse  ten  beats  in  a  minute.  If  this  is 
true  of  a  beast,  what  can  we  say  of  its  power  upon  a 
human  being,  and  especially  upon  a  child  ? 

Strong  mental  emotion  often  causes  vomiting.  Vio- 
lent anger  or  fright  may  produce  jaundice  in  a  short 
time,  under  certain  conditions. 

The  "  Scientific  American  "  reports  the  case  of  a  lady  in 


POWER    OF  THE  MIND   OVER   THE  BODY.      381 

Bridgeport,  Conn,,  who  called  a  physician  to  extricate 
her  false  teeth  which  she  had  swallowed.  When  the 
physician  arrived  the  muscles  of  her  throat  were  in  vio- 
lent spasm,  and  she  was  apparently  choking  to  death. 
Eminent  physicians  consulted  and  agreed  to  resort  to 
tracheotomy.  But  one  of  the  physicians  felt  something 
under  the  edge  of  the  bed,  which,  upon  examination, 
proved  to  be  the  missing  molars.  When  the  patient 
saw  them  the  convulsions  ceased  immediately. 

Madame  Bernhardt,  the  famous  actress,  says :  "  I 
have  never  played  'Phsedre'  without  fainting  or  spit- 
ting blood ;  and  after  the  fourth  tableau  of  '  Theodora,' 
in  Avhich  I  kill  Marcellus,  I  am  in  such  a  nervous  state 
that  I  return  to  my  dressing-room  sobbing.  If  I  do  not 
weep  I  have  a  hysterical  fit  which  is  much  more  disa- 
greeable to  those  around  me,  and  more  dangerous  to  the 
vases  and  other  things  near  at  hand." 

Sir  Humphry  Davy  cured  a  man  of  paralysis  by  in- 
serting a  thermometer  in  his  mouth  to  take  the  tem- 
perature, the  patient  supposing  it  to  be  an  appliance  to 
cure  that  disease.  Persons  who  have  been  bedridden  for 
years,  and  lifelong  invalids  who  were  considered  almost 
helpless,  have  risen  from  their  beds  when  the  house  was 
on  fire,  and  have  not  only  helped  to  rescue  others,  but 
have  helped  to  clear  the  house  of  furniture  and  valua- 
bles. Physicians  who  have  been  convinced  that  bedrid- 
den patients  have  been  laboring  under  a  delusion  have 
cured  them  by  resorting  to  heroic  treatment,  such  as 
giving  an  alarm  of  fire,  or  applying  to  their  flesh  a  red- 
hot  poker,  thus  forcing  them  out  of  bed  and  sometimes 
out  of  the  house. 

The  medical  report  in  Philadelphia  in  1794,  after  the 
epidemic  of  yellow  fever,  said,  "Di.  Rush's  presence 
was  a  powerful  stimulant ;  men  recovered  to  whom  he 
gave  no  medicine,  as  if  his  word  was  enough  to  turn  the 
fever."  Physicians  like  Dr.  Push  carry  about  with  them 
a  mesmeric  or  spiritual  influence,  a  healing  balm  in  their 


382  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

very  atmospliere.  Dr.  Rush,  a  monarcli  in  medicine, 
after  curing  hundreds  of  cases  of  mental  depression, 
himself  fell  sick,  lost  his  religious  hope  as  a  conse- 
quence of  a  nervous  disorder,  and  would  not  believe  his 
pastor  as  to  the  cause  of  his  depression. 

Cross,  crabbed,  uncomfortable,  fretful  patients,  even 
when  suffering  agony  almost,  are  sometimes  completely 
changed  by  a  call  from  some  genial  friend,  or  jolly  plty- 
sician,  or  by  the  news  of  some  good  fortune.  The 
excruciating  pain  is  banished,  the  face  lightens,  and 
a  pleasant  smile  takes  the  place  of  a  scowl.  The 
patient  is  completely  transformed,  yet  the  change  has 
been  only  a  mental  one,  and  has  come  from  no  medi- 
cine or  treatment.  A  throbbing  toothache  usually  ceases 
just  before  we  get  into  the  dentist's  chair. 

Bulwer  advises  us  to  refuse  to  be  ill,  never  to  tell 
people  we  are  ill,  never  to  own  it  ourselves.  Illness  is 
one  of  those  things  which  a  man  should  resist  on  prin- 
ciple. Never  say  you  are  weak  if  you  wish  to  be  strong, 
or  fatigued  if  you  would  be  perpetually  fresh.  All  these 
discordant  pictures  of  the  mind  have  an  influence  on 
the  body. 

"  Of  all  base  passions,  fear  is  most  accursed."  It  was 
worshiped  as  a  god  by  the  ancients,  but  to-day  we  know 
it  to  be  a  great  enemy  of  the  human  race,  and  that  it 
renders  the  body  susceptible  to  discord  or  disease  in 
proportion  to  its  intensity.  Fear  and  anxiety  destroy 
the  red  blood  globules  ;  and  if  they  are  reduced  below  a 
certain  proportion,  disease  and  death  ensue.  Who  can 
estimate  the  woe,  the  anxiety,  the  suffering,  caused  by 
fear,  in  all  its  variety  of  forms  ?  Many  a  poor  girl  has 
lost  her  precious  life  by  consumption  because  she  was 
brought  up  with  the  conviction  perpetually  thrust  upon 
her  mind  that  she  must  die  of  that  disease  because  her 
parents  did. 

Many  delicate  organizations  have,  by  some  shock, 
been  thrown  into  a  state  of  hopeless  disease.    The  news 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND   OVER    THE  BODY.     383 

of  the  sudden  death  of  a  loved  husband  has  often  thrown 
the  delicate  and  sensitive  wife  into  convulsions  and  un- 
consciousness. Violent  paroxysms  of  anger  have  caused 
apoplexy  and  death.  One  night  of  mental  agony  has 
often  caused  the  well  to  become  hopeless  invalids.  Con- 
stant grief,  long-standing  and  bitter  jealousy,  constant 
care  and  corroding  anxiety,  sometimes  tend  to  the  devel- 
opment of  cancer.  Sick  thoughts  and  discordant  moods 
are  the  natural  atmosphere  of  disease,  and  crime  is 
engendered  and  thrives  in  the  miasma  of  the  mind. 
Instead  of  bracing  ourselves  against  disease  by  expell- 
ing every  discordant  thought,  and  barring  every  avenue 
of  possible  approach,  as  we  would  guard  our  homes 
against  thieves  or  contagion,  we  render  ourselves  an 
easy  prey  to  the  enemy  by  watching  for  the  symptoms 
of  the  very  disease  we  fear,  and  dwelling  upon,  and  pic- 
turing in  the  mind,  the  physical  features  of  the  malady. 
Thus  the  power  to  resist  the  disease  is  lessened.  In- 
stead of  fighting  the  thousand  enemies  Avhich  dog  our 
heels  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  we  put  ourselves  into 
sympathy  with  them,  and  invite  their  approach  by  ren- 
dering ourselves  more  susceptible.  Every  one  knows 
the  depressing  influence  of  fear  upon  patients  with  cer- 
tain diseases,  especially  heart  disease.  The  action  of 
the  heart  is  weakened,  and  the  vitality  is  lowered  by 
concentrating  one's  mind  upon  that  organ.  Physicians 
often  imagine  they  have  heart  disease,  and  medical  stu- 
dents imagine  they  have  the  diseases  they  study.  A 
Philadelphian  consulted  a  physician  for  what  he  feared 
was  a  hopeless  case  of  heart  disease,  but  found  instant 
relief  when  he  discovered  that  the  rasping  sound  which 
he  heard  at  every  deep  breath  was  due  to  a  little  pulley 
in  his  patent  suspenders. 

Physicians  tell  us  that  perfect  health  is  impossible  to 
the  self -dissector  who  is  constantly  thinking  of  himself, 
and  studying  himself,  and  forever  on  the  alert  for  the 
least  symptom  which  indicates  disease. 


384  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

A  man  without  will  power,  a  vacillating,  uncertain 
man,  does  not  possess  himself,  even  physically,  for  he  is 
much  more  susceptible  to  disease  and  physical  infirmi- 
ties than  a  man  with  a  strong  will.  He  has  no  hold,  no 
grip  upon  himself ;  he  is  blown  hither  and  thither  by 
everybody's  advice,  taking  every  patent  medicine  recom- 
mended or  advertised,  impairing  his  blood  by  useless 
drugging,  and  is  irregular  in  his  habits. 

There  is  no  faculty  more  susceptible  to  training,  none 
which  responds  more  readily  to  drill,  than  the  will 
power,  although  it  is  seldom  trained  in  school  or  college. 
No  faculty  can  do  more  for  us  in  forming  habits  which 
bless  or  curse,  but  it  is  seldom  cultivated.  It  holds 
our  success  or  failure  in  its  grasp,  our  happiness  or 
misery,  but  we  often  allow  it  to  run  wild.  By  a  strong 
exercise  of  the  will  we  can  form  habits  of  accuracy  or 
inaccuracy,  truthfulness  or  falsehood,  tidiness  or  sloven- 
liness, honesty  or  dishonesty,  industry  or  indolence,  of 
method  or  carelessness,  of  courtesy  or  rudeness,  of  con- 
centration or  dissipation ;  and  these  make  all  the  differ- 
ence between  a  man  and  a  beast. 

Sudden  shocks  to  the  nervous  system  are  destructive 
of  health  and  harmony. 

The  hair  of  an  English  banker  became  white  in  three 
days  after  he  met  with  great  financial  reverses.  A 
German  physician  was  crossing  a  bridge  when  he  saw 
a  boy  struggling  in  the  water  below.  He  rushed  into 
the  stream  and  seized  the  drowning  boy,  only  to  dis- 
cover that  it  was  his  own  son.  His  hair  turned  white 
in  one  day.    Marie  Antoinette's  black  hair  turned  white 

a   few  days  before  her  execution.     Captain  P of 

Vermont,  captured  by  the  British  in  1813  on  the  Cana- 
dian frontier,  was  put  under  guard  and  told  that  he 
would  be  shot  in  the  morning.  His  jet-black  hair 
turned  white  during  the  night. 

"  Where  are  you  going  ?  "  asked  an  Eastern  pilgrim 
on  meeting  the  Plague  one  day.     "  I  am  going  to  Bag- 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND   OVER   THE  BODY.     385 

dad  to  kill  five  thousand  people,"  was  the  reply.  A  few 
days  later  the  same  pilgrim  met  the  Plague  returning. 
^'You  told  me  you  were  going  to  Bagdad  to  kill  five 
thousand  people,"  said  he,  "  but  instead  you  killed  fifty 
thousand."  "  No,"  said  the  Plague,  "  I  killed  only  five 
thousand,  as  I  told  you  I  would ;  the  others  died  of 
fright."  Physicians  have  reported  cases  where  hun- 
dreds of  peo]3le  died  of  fright  in  the  poor  quarters  of 
large  cities,  in  times  of  the  plague,  before  there  was  a 
physical  possibility  that  the  disease  could  have  reached 
them. 

Jealousy  will  sometimes  change  a  lovely  character  to 
that  of  a  fiend.  Hatred  sometimes  changes  a  happy 
household  into  a  pandemonium.  A  false  telegram  an- 
nouncing the  death  of  some  dear  friend  will  prostrate 
you  just  as  quickly  as  though  the  report  were  true,  yet 
the  fear  had  no  foundation  except  in  your  mind.  Good 
news  will  elate  you  correspondingly,  but  by  a  similar 
process. 

A  painter  was  so  fascinated  by  the  face  of  a  lovely 
child  whose  portrait  he  had  painted  that  he  hung  the 
picture  in  his  study  and  would  gaze  at  it  for  hours.  It 
became  a  kind  of  guardian  angel  to  him.  In  sorrow  and 
in  passion  he  tranquilized  his  soul  by  looking  at  that 
heavenly  countenance.  He  resolved  to  paint  its  oppo- 
site, but  he  could  find  no  face  ugly  enough  until,  years 
afterward,  he  looked  upon  a  hardened  wretch  lying  in 
despair  upon  the  floor  of  a  prison  cell.  He  painted  the 
terrible  face,  and  then  learned  to  his  astonishment  that 
it  was  that  of  the  same  person  he  had  painted  before. 
The  innocent  child  had  become  the  profligate,  the 
ruined  youth.  Passion  had  transformed  the  seraph 
into  a  demon ;  the  body  had  changed  to  match  the  mind. 

Watch  the  sick  in  the  hospital  ward,  and  notice  the 
faces  beam  with  gladness,  or  cloud  with  sorrow,  as  the 
physician  passes  from  bed  to  bed,  and  reveals  in  a 
smile,  a  perplexed  look,  or  a  shake  of  his  head,  hope  or 


386  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

despair  for  the  patient.  How  eagerly  each  watches  the 
doctor's  face  for  a  ray  of  hope !  If  the  fever  patient 
gets  encouragement  his  parched  tongue  immediately 
moistens,  his  eye  brightens,  and  his  hot,  dry  skin  be- 
comes moist  and  cool.  No  drug  could  have  wrought 
such  magic  as  that  one  ray  of  hope.  Nothing  has 
touched  the  patient,  —  an  idea,  a  sentiment  only,  —  and 
yet  he  is  completely  transformed.  Yet  if  the  doctor 
but  shake  his  head  in  doubt,  the  secretions  stop,  and 
the  cold,  clammy  sweat  appears.  Despair  settles  over 
the  patient's  face  ;  all  the  centres  of  life's  energy  are 
depressed. 

Eaphael  could  not  paint  the  face  of  Christ  with  Judas 
for  a  model.  Phidias  could  not  call  an  angel  from  the 
marble  while  he  had  a  fiend  in  his  mind.  A  flaw  in 
the  thought  will  appear  in  the  statue.  We  can  never 
accomplish  anything  great  without  a  high  ideal,  and 
can  we  expect  to  gain  that  exquisite  poise,  that  rh3^thmic 
pose  which  we  call  health,  and  which  a  thousand  condi- 
tions must  be  met  to  produce,  while  we  have  a  defective 
ideal  in  the  mind  ?  How  can  I  keep  the  mind's  atmos- 
phere clear  and  pure  when  I  fill  it  with  the  miasma  of 
suicide  and  crime  from  sensational  publications.  Every 
thought  tends  to  reproduce  itself,  and  ghastly  mental 
pictures  of  disease,  sensuality,  and  murder  produce 
scrofula  and  leprosy  in  the  soul,  which  reproduces  them 
in  the  body.  The  mind  devours  everything  that  is 
brought  to  it,  —  the  true,  the  false,  the  good,  the  bad, 
and  it  will  produce  soundness  or  rottenness,  beauty  or 
deformity,  harmony  or  discord,  truth  or  error,  according 
to  the  quality  of  the  food  we  give  it. 

"  As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  The 
body  is  moulded  and  fashioned  by  the  thought.  If  a 
young  woman  were  to  try  to  make  herself  beautiful,  she 
would  not  begin  by  contemplating  ugliness,  or  dwelling 
upon  the  monstrosities  of  vice,  for  their  hideous  images 
would  be   reproduced   in  her  own   face  and   manners. 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND  OVER   THE  BODY.     387 

Nor  would  she  try  to  make  herself  graceful  by  practi- 
cing awkwardness.  We  can  never  gain  health  by  con- 
templating disease  any  more  than  we  can  reach  perfec- 
tion by  dwelling  upon  imperfection,  or  harmony  through 
discord. 

We  should  keep  a  high  ideal  of  health  and  harmony 
constantly  before  the  mind ;  and  we  should  fight  every 
discordant  thought  and  every  enemy  of  harmony  as  we 
would  fight  a  temptation  to  crime.  Never  affirm  or  re- 
peat about  your  health  what  you  do  not  wish  to  be  true. 
Do  not  dwell  upon  your  ailments  nor  study  your  symp- 
toms. Never  allow  yourself  to  be  convinced  that  you 
are  not  complete  master  of  yourself.  Stoutly  affirm 
your  own  superiority  over  bodily  ills,  and  do  not  ac- 
knowledge yourself  the  slave  of  an  inferior  power. 

I  would  teach  children  early  to  build  a  strong  barrier 
between  themselves  and  disease  by  healthy  habits  of 
thought,  high  thinking,  and  purity  of  life.  I  would 
teach  them  to  expel  all  thoughts  of  death,  all  images  of 
disease,  all  discordant  emotions,  like  hatred,  malice, 
revenge,  envy,  and  sensuality,  as  they  would  banish  a 
temptation  to  do  evil.  I  would  teach  them  that  bad 
food,  bad  drink,  or  bad  air  makes  bad  blood,  that  bad 
blood  makes  bad  tissue,  and  bad  flesh  bad  morals.  I 
would  teach  them  that  healthy  thoughts  are  as  essential 
to  healthy  bodies  as  pure  thoughts  to  a  clean  life.  I 
would  teach  them  to  cultivate  a  strong  will  power,  and 
to  brace  themselves  against  life's  enemies  in  every  pos- 
sible way.  I  would  teach  the  sick  to  have  hope,  confi- 
dence, cheer.  Our  thoughts  and^  imaginations  are  the 
only  real  limits  to  our  possibilities.  No  man's  success 
or  health  will  ever  reach  beyond  his  own  confidence,  — 
as  a  rule,  we  erect  our  own  barriers.  Like  produces 
like  the  universe  through.  Hatred,  envy,  malice,  jeal- 
ousy, and  revenge  all  have  children.  Every  bad  thought 
breeds  others,  and  each  of  these  goes  on  and  on,  ever 
reproducing  itself,  until  a  world  is  peopled  with  their 
offspring. 


388  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

The  true  physician  and  parent  of  the  future  will  not 
medicate  the  body  with  drugs  so  much  as  the  mind  with 
principles.  The  coming  mother  will  teach  her  child  to 
assuage  the  fever  of  anger,  hatred,  malice,  with  the 
great  panacea  of  the  world,  —  Love.  The  coming  phy- 
sician will  teach  the  people  to  cultivate  cheerfulness, 
good-will,  and  noble  deeds  for  a  health-tonic  as  well  as 
a  heart-tonic  ;  and  that  a  merry  heart  doeth  good  like  a 
medicine. 

Something  of  the  miraculous  power  of  Christ,  no 
doubt,  was  due  to  his  superior  moral,  mental,  and  physi- 
cal harmony.  He  seems  to  have  been  sent  into  the 
world  to  show  the  j^ossibilitles  of  a  perfect  manhood, 
eliminated  of  inherited  or  acquired  weaknesses,  which 
so  limit  and  cripple  other  lives.  There  was  a  superb 
harmony  in  his  moral  and  mental  as  well  as  spiritual 
touch  which  banished  the  physical  discord  of  disease. 
He  demonstrated  the  superiority  of  a  perfect  physical 
system  over  the  petty  ills  and  discords  which  haunt  the 
inferior  physique  ;  the  superiority  of  mind  over  matter, 
the  supremacy  of  a  rounded  manhood  over  the  discords 
and  limitations  of  inferior  development.  He  showed 
that  a  healthy  body  tends  to  make  a  healthy  soul,  and 
that  a  healthy  soul  tends  to  produce  a  harmonious  body. 
He  illustrated  the  uplifting,  purifying,  and  sustaining 
power  of  the  mind  over  the  body. 

The  mind  has  undoubted  power  to  preserve  and  sus- 
tain physical  youth  and  beauty,  to  keep  the  body  strong 
and  healthy,  to  renew  life,  and  to  preserve  it  from  de- 
cay, many  years  longer  than  it  does  now.  The  longest 
lived  men  and  women  have,  as  a  rule,  been  those  who 
have  attained  great  mental  and  moral  development. 
They  have  lived  in  the  upper  region  of  a  higher  life, 
beyond  the  reach  of  much  of  the  jar,  the  friction,  and 
the  discords  which  weaken  and  shatter  most  lives. 

He  who  would  live  to  a  good  old  age,  who  would 
carry  youth   and  freshness,  symmetry   and  beauty,  of 


POWER   OF  THE  MIND  OVER   THE  BODY.     389 

mind  and  body  into  ripe  years,  must  have  a  cultured 
heart,  an  educated  mind,  and  a  well  kept  body.  He 
must  be  temperate  and  virtuous  ;  he  must  not  defile  the 
temple  of  his  soul  with  vice  or  imbrute  it  with  sensual- 
ity. The  mind  is  the  natural  protector  of  the  body. 
We  cannot  believe  that  the  Creator  has  left  the  whole 
human  race  entirely  at  the  mercy  of  only  about  half  a 
dozen  specific  drugs  which  always  act  with  certainty. 
There  is  a  divine  remedy  placed  within  us  for  many  of 
the  ills  we  suffer.  If  we  only  knew  how  to  use  this 
power  of  will  and  mind  to  protect  ourselves,  many  of 
the  physicians  would  be  out  of  employment,  and  many 
of  us  would  be  able  to  carry  youth  and  cheerfulness 
with  us  into  the  teens  of  our  second  century. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE     CHARITIES. 

It  never  troubles  the  sun  that  some  of  his  rays  fall  wide  and  vain  into 
ungrateful  space,  and  only  a  small  part  on  the  reflecting  planet.  Thou  art 
enlarged  by  th}--  own  shining.  — Emerson. 

Though  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  and  have  not 
charity,  I  am  become  as  sounding  brass,  or  a  tinkling  cymbal.  —  St.  Paul. 
Shall  I  ask  the  brave  soldier  who  fights  by  my  side, 
In  the  cause  of  mankind,  if  our  creeds  agree  ? 
Shall  I  give  up  the  friend  I  have  valued  and  tried, 
If  he  kneel  not  before  the  same  altar  with  me  ? 

Moore. 
If  God  is  thy  father,  man  is  thy  brother.  —  Lamartine. 
When  you  're  good  to  others  you  are  best  to  yourself,  — Franklin. 
Don't  look  for  the  flaws  as  you  go  through  life, 

And  even  when  you  find  them 
It's  wise  and  kind  to  be  somewhat  blind, 
And  look  for  the  virtue  behind  them. 

Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox. 
But  still  believe  that  story  wrong 
Which  ought  not  to  be  true. 

Sheridan. 

If  we  could  read  the  secret  histor}'  of  our  enemies  we  would  find  in  each 
man's  life  sorrow  and  suffering  enough  to  disarm  hostility.  —  Longfellow. 
You  will  find  people  ready  enough  to  act  the  Samaritan  without  the  oil 
and  twopence.  —  Sydney  Smith. 

"  Charity  giveth  itself  rich ;  covetousness  hoardeth  itself  poor." 
"  If  you  call  down  a  curse  on  any  one,  look  out  for  two  graves." 
Democracj'  means  not  "I  am  as  good  as  j^ou  are,"  but  "You  are  as 
good  as  I  am."  —  Theodore  Parker. 

Not  what  we  give,  but  what  we  share, 
For  the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare. 

Lowell. 

In  the  seed-room  of  the  Agricultural  Department 
at  Washington  a  slender  woman,  with  a  scattering  of 
gray  in  her  hair,  works  faithfully  for   nine   dollars   a 


WASHINGTON    IRVING 
He  is  the  noblest  man  who  puts  the  highest  estimate  upon  others. 
*'  If  I  treat  all  meu  as  gods,  how  to  me  can  there  be  au}-  such  thing  as  a  slave 


THE   CHARITIES.  391 

week.  Traces  of  refinement  and  culture  distinguisli  her 
bearing,  and  her  delicate  face  is  marked  by  lines  of  care, 
but  all  her  energies  seem  focused  upon  the  duties  of  a 
position  bestowed  by  Secretary  Eusk  in  response  to  the 
following  letter :  — 

Cedar  Hill,  Anacostia,  D.  C, 

November  20,  1891. 
Hon.  J.  M.  Rusk,  Secretary  of  Agriculture. 

Sir,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  remind  you,  as  requested,  of  the 

case  of  Miss ,  a  member  of  the  family  in  which  I  was 

formerly  a  slave.     Circumstances  have  reduced  the  fortune  of 

that  branch  of  the  family  to  which  Miss belongs,  and 

hence  she  seeks,  through  my  intercession,  some  employment 
by  which  she  may  assist  herself  and  family  in  this  their  hour 
of  need.  It  is  a  strange  reversal  of  human  relations  that 
brings  myself,  the  slave,  and  this  lady,  brought  up  in  the  lap 
of  luxury  and  ease,  now  to  seek  the  humble  employment  I 

ask  for  her.     Miss will,  I  am  sure,  if  given  the  place  she 

seeks,  prove  herself  a  useful  member  of  the  Agricultural 
service,  and  grateful  for  the  appointment.  Hoping  that  no 
obstacle  will  be  found  to  her  getting  the  place  she  seeks,  I  am, 
sir,  very  truly,  your  obedient  servant, 

Frederick  Douglass. 

"  Whoever  stole  a  lot  of  hides  on  the  5th  of  the  pres- 
ent month  is  hereby  informed  that  the  owner  has  a 
sincere  wish  to  be  his  friend.  If  poverty  tempted  him 
to  this  false  step,  the  owner  will  keep  the  whole  matter 
secret,  and  will  gladly  put  him  in  the  way  of  obtaining 
a  living  by  means  more  likely  to  bring  him  peace  of 
mind."  This  strange  advertisement  in  the  newspapers 
of  Philadelphia,  during  the  Eevolutionary  War,  attracted 
much  attention  ;  but  the  thief  was  the  only  reader  who 
knew  that  the  kind  offer  came  from  a  Quaker  tanner 
named  William  Savery.  At  about  nine  o'clock,  a  few 
evenings  later,  the  tanner  opened  his  door  in  response 
to  a  timid  knock,  and  found  a  man  standing  with  the 
hides  on  his  shoulder.  "  I  have  brought  these  back, 
Mr.   Savery,"    he  said  with  downcast  eyes  ;    "  where 


392  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

shall  I  put  them  ?  "  "  Wait  till  I  can  light  a  lantern, 
and  I  will  go  to  the  barn  with  thee/'  replied  the  Quaker. 
^'  Then,  perhaps,  thou  wilt  come  in  and  tell  me  how 
this  thing  happened,  and  we  will  see  what  can  be  done 
for  thee."  When  they  returned,  Mrs.  Savery,  who  had 
placed  hot  coffee  and  food  on  the  table,  said,  "  Neigh- 
bor Smith,  I  thought  some  hot  supper  would  do  thee 
good."  Smith  turned  away  in  silence,  but  said  in  a 
choked  voice,  a  moment  afterward,  "  It  is  the  first  time 
I  ever  stole  anything,  and  I  feel  very  bad  about  it.  I 
don't  know  how  it  is.  But  I  took  to  drinking,  and  then 
to  quarreling.  And  since  I  began  to  go  down  hill,  every- 
body gives  me  a  kick.  You  are  the  first  man,  Mr. 
Savery,  that  has  ever  offered  me  a  helping  hand.  God 
bless  you  !  I  stole  the  hides  from  you,  meaning  to  sell 
them.  But  I  tell  you  the  truth  when  I  say  it  is  the 
first  time  I  was  ever  a  thief."  "  Let  it  be  the  last  time, 
my  friend ;  the  secret  shall  be  between  me  and  thee," 
replied  Savery.  "Thou  art  still  young.  Promise  me 
that  thou  wilt  not  drink  any  more  liquor  for  a  year,  and 
I  will  employ  thee  to-morrow  at  good  wages.  Perhaps 
we  may  find  some  work  for  thy  family  also.  But  eat  a 
bit  now,  and  drink  some  hot  coffee,  to  keep  thee  from 
craving  anything  stronger.  Keep  up  a  brave  heart  for 
the  sake  of  thy  wife  and  children.  Try  to  do  well, 
John,"  said  Mr.  Savery,  as  he  bade  his  visitor  good- 
night, "and  thou  wilt  always  find  a  friend  in  me." 
Mr.  Johonnot,  who  tells  this  story  at  much  greater 
length,  says  that  Smith  began  work  at  the  tannery  the 
next  day  and  remained  with  the  Quaker  many  years, 
a  sober,  honest,  and  faithful  man. 

"  If  I  treat  all  men  as  gods,"  asks  Emerson,  "  how 
to  me  can  there  be  any  such  thing  as  a  slave  ?  " 

Early  in  the  century,  when  Elizabeth  Fry  was  giving 
all  her  energies  to  work  among  the  convicts  in  English 
prisons,  a  lady  companion,  noting  that  she  was  greeted 
affectionately   as   a   familiar   friend  by  the   wretched 


THE  CHARITIES.  393 

inmates  of  the  women's  cells  in  Newgate,  asked  of  what 
crimes  these  women  had  been  convicted.  "I  do  not 
know,"  replied  Mrs.  Fry ;  "  I  never  have  asked  them 
that.     We  all  have  come  short." 

"  I  have  never  heard  of  any  crime,"  said  Goethe, 
"  which  I  might  not  have  committed." 

Ah  !  why  will  kings  forget  that  they  are  men? 
And  men  that  they  are  brethren  ? 

Beilby  Porteus. 

"  There  are  some  people  who  believe  the  whole  hu- 
man race  will  be  saved,"  said  an  old  lady  ;  "  but,  for  my 
part,  I  hope  for  better  things."  At  another  time  she 
said  that  the  doctrine  of  total  depravity  is  good  enough, 
if  people  would  only  live  up  to  it.  This  quaint  old  lady 
does  not  lack  for  less  outspoken  companions  who  are 
constantly  looking  for  evidences  of  original  sin  in  their 
friends,  and  seem  overjoyed  when  they  iind  such  in- 
dications. 

"  A  say,  Jim,  who  bees  that  ? "  asked  one  young 
Yorkshire  miner  of  another.  "  A  's  a  stranger ;  a  ^s 
noon  o '  oor  folks."  "  'Eave  'alf  a  brick  hat  'im,  then." 
How  many  educated  people  manifest  a  similar  spirit  of 
intolerance,  only  in  a  different  way ! 

"It  is  a  shame,"  said  Clovis,  looking  on  the  rich 
fields  across  the  Garonne,  "  that  such  territories  should 
belong  to  villains  who  have  a  different  creed  from  ours. 
Onward !  let  us  take  possession  of  their  land." 

"And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,"  wrote 
Franklin,  "that  Abraham  sat  in  the  door  of  his  tent, 
about  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  And  behold,  a  man 
bowed  with  age  came  from  the  way  of  the  wilderness, 
leaning  on  a  staff.  And  Abraham  arose  and  met  him, 
and  said  unto  him,  '  Turn  in,  I  pray  thee,  and  wash  thy 
feet,  d:nd  tarry  all  night,  and  thou  shalt  arise  early  on 
the  morrow,  and  go  on  thy  way.'  But  the  man  said, 
'  Kay,  for  I  will  abide  under  this  tree.'  And  Abraham 
pressed  him  greatly ;  so  he  turned,  and  they  went  into 


394  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

the  tent,  and  Abraham  baked  unleavened  bread,  and 
they  did  eat.  And  when  Abraham  saw  that  the  man 
blessed  not  God,  he  said  unto  him,  '  Wherefore  dost 
thou  not  worship  the  most  high  God,  Creator  of  heaven 
and  earth  ?  ' 

"  And  the  man  answered  and  said,  ^  I  do  not  worship 
the  God  thou  speakest  of,  neither  do  I  call  upon  his 
name  ;  for  I  have  made  to  myself  a  god,  which  abideth 
always  in  my  house,  and  provideth  me  with  all  things.' 
And  Abraham's  zeal  was  kindled  against  the  man,  and 
he  arose  and  fell  upon  him,  and  drove  him  forth  with 
blows  into  the  wilderness.  And  at  midnight  God 
called  unto  Abraham,  saying,  ^Abraham,  where  is  the 
stranger  ?  '  And  Abraham  answered  and'said,  '  Lord, 
he  would  not  worship  Thee,  neither  would  he  call  upon 
Thy  name  ;  therefore  have  I  driven  him  from  before 
my  face  into  the  wilderness.' 

"  And  God  said, '  Have  I  borne  with  him  these  hundred 
ninety  and  eight  years  ;  and  nourished  him  and  clothed 
him,  notwithstanding  his  rebellion  against  Me ;  and 
couldst  not  thou,  that  art  thyself  a  sinner,  bear  with 
him  one  night  ?  '  " 

"  A  bishop,"  Talmage  tells  us,  "  said  to  Louis  XL  of 
France :  ^  Make  an  iron  cage  for  those  who  do  not 
think  as  we  do  —  an  iron  cage  in  which  the  captive  can 
neither  lie  down  nor  stand  upright.'  After  a  while  the 
bishop  offended  the  king,  and  for  fourteen  years  he  was 
confined  in  that  same  cage." 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  said,  "  I  am  willing  to  love  all 
mankind  except  an  American." 

In  the  same  year  that  Queen  Isabella  pledged  her 
jewels  to  enable  Columbus  to  seek  the  Western  world 
she  signed  the  decree  expelling  from  Spain  all  who 
would  not  renounce  the  Mohammedan  religion.  The 
latter  was  one  of  the  most  cruel  acts  of  religious  intol- 
erance on  record ;  the  former  act  aided  to  discover  a 
world  which  has  become  the  home  of  religious  tolerance 
and  freedom. 


THE  CHARITIES.  395 

For  his  great  discoveries  in  science,  Eoger  Bacon  was 
sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  ten  years. 

After  Emerson's  lecture  at  Middlebury  College,  Ver- 
mont, a  minister  said  in  the  closing  prayer,  "  We  be- 
seech Thee,  0  Lord,  to  deliver  us  from  hearing  any 
more  such  transcendental  nonsense  as  we  have  just 
listened  to  from  this  sacred  desk."  Emerson's  only  re- 
mark upon  the  suppliant  was,  that  he  seemed  a  very 
conscientious,  plain-spoken  man. 

The  Emperor  Constantine  commanded  a  whole  com- 
pany of  bishops  to  think  alike  without  a  day's  delay. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  advised  the  doubting  inquir- 
ers at  Oxford  "  to  sign  the  thirty -nine  articles  and  be- 
lieve them." 

M.  Boudon,  an  eminent  surgeon,  was  one  day  sent  for 
by  the  Cardinal  Du  Bois,  Prime  Minister  of  France,  to 
perform  a  very  serious  operation  upon  him.  The  Car- 
dinal said  to  him,  "  You  must  not  expect  to  treat  me 
in  the  same  rough  manner  as  you  treat  your  poor  mis- 
erable wretches  at  your  hospital  of  the  Hotel  Dieu." 
"My  lord,"  replied  M.  Boudon  with  great  dignity, 
"  every  one  of  those  miserable  wretches,  as  your  emi- 
nence is  pleased  to  call  them,  is  a  Prime  Minister  in  my 
eyes." 

A  poor  woman,  knowing  that  Dr.  Goldsmith  had 
studied  physic,  and  hearing  of  his  great  humanity,  so- 
licited him  in  a  letter  to  send  her  something  for  her 
husband,  who  had  lost  his  appetite  and  was  reduced  to 
a  most  melancholy  state.  The  good-natured  poet  waited 
on  her  instantly,  and  after  some  discourse  with  his  pa- 
tient, found  him  sinking  in  sickness  and  poverty.  The 
doctor  told  him  they  should  hear  from  him  in  an  hour, 
when  he  would  send  them  some  pills  which  he  believed 
would  prove  efficacious.  He  immediately  went  home 
and  put  ten  guineas  into  a  chip  box,  with  the  following 
label :  "  These  must  be  used  as  necessities  require. 
Be  patient,  and  of  good  heart." 


396  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Goldsmith  would  sometimes  give  away  part  of  his 
only  suit  of  clothes.  On  one  occasion  he  gave  away  all 
the  covering  from  his  bed  and  got '  under  the  tick  to 
keep  from  freezing. 

A  Frenchwoman  was  bled  to  death  by  a  surgeon  who 
clumsily  cut  an  artery  instead  of  a  vein.  Dying  she 
bequeathed  him  a  handsome  life  annuity  on  condition 
that  he  would  never  bleed  any  one  again  as  long  as  he 
lived.  A  Polish  princess  who  lost  her  life  in  the  same 
way  put  the  following  clause  in  the  will  made  on  her 
deathbed:  "  Convinced  of  the  injury  that  my  unfortu- 
nate accident  will  occasion  to  the  unhappy  surgeon  who 
is  the  cause  of  my  death,  I  bequeath  him  a  life  annuity 
of  two  hundred  ducats,  assured  by  my  estate,  and  for- 
give him  his  mistake  from  my  heart.  I  wish  this  may 
indemnify  him  from  the  discredit  which  my  sorrowful 
catastrophe  will  bring  him." 

After  the  battle  of  Waterloo  Wellington  Avas  re- 
quested to  put  Napoleon  to  death.  "  Such  an  act," 
replied  the  Iron  Duke,  "  would  disgrace  us  in  the  eyes 
of  posterity.  It  would  be  said  of  us  that  we  were  not 
worthy  to  be  conquerors  of  Napoleon." 

Grant  was  the  embodiment  of  magnanimity  when 
Lee  surrendered  at  Appomattox,  declining  to  be  present, 
and  refusing  to  make  a  triumphant  entry  into  the  Con- 
federate capital.  "  I  will  instruct  my  paroling  officers 
that  all  the  enlisted  men  in  your  cavalry  and  artillery 
who  own  horses  are  to  retain  them  just  as  the  officers 
do  theirs,"  said  he  ;  "  they  will  need  them  for  their 
spring  plowing  and  other  farm  work.  I  will  furnish  your 
soldiers  with  a  parole  to  protect  them  from  Confederate 
conscription  officers."  And  he  issued  twenty  thousand 
rations  for  the  conquered  enemy,  hungry  and  exhausted. 
A  Southern  brigadier  said  to  him,  "  You  astonish  us  by 
your  generosity ;  "  and  General  Badeau  wrote,  "  The 
men  whom  he  conquered  never  forgot  his  magnanimity." 
General  Grant  had  been  for   several  months   in  front 


THE  CHARITIES.  397 

of  Petersburg,  apparently  accomplishing  nothing,  while 
General  Sherman  had  captured  Atlanta,  and  completed 
his  grand  "  march  to  the  sea."  Then  arose  a  strong 
cry  to  promote  Sherman  to  Grant's  position  as  lieuten- 
ant-general. Hearing  of  it,  Sherman  wrote  to  Grant, 
"  I  have  written  to  John  Sherman  (Ms  brother)  to  stop 
it.  I  would  rather  have  you  in  command  than  any  one 
else.  I  should  emphatically  decline  any  commission 
calculated  to  bring  us  into  rivalry."  Grant  replied, 
"  No  one  would  be  more  pleased  with  your  advancement 
than  I;  and  if  you  should  be  placed  in  my  position, 
and  I  put  subordinate,  it  would  not  change  our  relations 
in  the  least.  I  would  make  the  same  exertion  to  sup- 
port you  that  you  have  done  to  support  me,  and  I  would 
do  all  in  my  power  to  make  your  cause  win." 

Charity  suffer eth  long  and  is  kind. 

At  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg  hundreds  of  Union 
soldiers  lay  wounded  on  the  field  a  whole  day  and  a 
night ;  the  agonizing  cries  for  water  among  the  wounded 
were  only  answered  by  the  roar  of  the  guns.  At  last  a 
Southern  soldier  who  could  not  endure  these  piteous  cries 
any  longer  begged  his  general  to  let  him  carry  water 
to  the  suffering.  The  general  told  him  it  would  be  in- 
stant death  to  appear  upon  the  field,  but  the  cries  of 
the  unfortunates  drowned  the  roar  of  the  guns  to  him 
at  least,  and  he  rushed  out  among  the  wounded  and 
dying  with  a  supply  of  water  on  his  errand  of  mercy. 
Wondering  eyes  from  both  armies  watched  the  brave 
fellow  as,  heedless  of  guns,  he  passed  from  soldier  to 
soldier,  gently  raising  his  head  and  placing  the  cooling 
cup  to  his  parched  lips.  The  Union  soldiers  were  so 
struck  by  the  action  of  this  boy  in  gray,  risking  his 
life  for  his  enemies'  sake,  that  they  ceased  firing  from 
admiration  for  an  hour  and  a  half,  as  did  the  Confeder- 
ates. During  this  whole  time  the  boy  in  gra}^  went 
over  the  entire  battlefield,  giving  drink  to  the  thirsty, 
straightening    cramped    and    mangled    limbs,    putting 


398  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

knapsacks  under  the  heads  of  sufferers,  spreading  coats 
and  blankets  over  them  as  tenderly  as  though  they  had 
been  his  own  comrades. 

Rosa  Bonheur  bought  a  ferocious  lion  named  ISTero. 
He  was  regarded  as  untamable,  but  the  kindness  and 
courtesy  of  the  great  artist  won  his  confidence  and  af- 
fection. When  she  was  about  to  travel  she  sold  him 
to  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  in  Paris.  Returning  two 
years  later,  she  found  him  entirely  blind,  from  the 
abuse  of  the  attendant.  He  was  lying  in  his  cage, 
heedless  of  the  crowd  that  passed.  The  mistress  called 
out  "  iSTero."  The  invalid  monarch  rushed  against  the 
sides  of  the  cage  with  such  violence  as  to  throw  him 
over  backward  half  stunned,  uttering  the  peculiar  note 
of  welcome,  reserved  only  for  the  mistress  he  had 
mourned  so  long.  Miss  Bonheur  was  so  touched  that 
she  bought  him  back  again.  He  died  in  the  chateau 
itself,  clinging  to  his  fond  mistress  with  his  great  paws 
even  when  dying,  as  if  beseeching  her  not  to  leave 
him.  "You  see,"  said  she,  "to  be  really  beloved  by 
wild  beasts  you  must  really  love  them." 

When  Dr.  Mott  was  visiting  Paris,  a  celebrated  sur- 
geon was  anxious  to  perform  one  of  his  great  operations 
before  him.  Not  finding  a  subject  in  the  hospitals  who 
had  the  malady  which  he  wanted  to  operate  for,  he  said, 
"  Xo  matter,  my  dear  friend,  there  is  a  poor  devil  in  ward 
number  —  who  is  no  use  to  himself  or  anybody  else ; 
if  you  will  come  to-morrow,  I  '11  operate  upon  him." 
Dr.  Mott  declined  to  witness  such  an  atrocious  crime. 

There  is  a  god  in  the  meanest  man,  there  is  a  phi- 
lanthropist in  the  stingiest  miser,  there  is  a  hero  in  the 
biggest  coward,  which  an  emergency  great  enough  will 
call  out.  The  blighting  greed  of  gain,  the  marbling 
usages  and  cold  laws  of  trade  encase  many  a  noble  heart 
in  crusts  of  selfishness,  but  great  emergencies  break 
open  the  prison  doors,  and  the  whole  heart  pours  out  its 
charity. 


THE  CHARITIES.  399 

Charity  helieveth  all  things.  When  everybody  else 
denounces  and  curses  a  man,  Charity  says,  "  Wait ; 
there  is  a  god  in  that  man  somewhere."  Do  not  pass 
a  hasty  judgment  upon  men's  motives.  They  may  be 
cherishing  noble  aspirations  even  while  the  world  con- 
demns. When  friends  and  relatives  were  fleeing  from 
those  sick  and  dying  of  yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia, 
when  money  could  not  buy  the  services  of  nurses,  and 
when  the  dead  lay  unburied  and  the  sick  uncared  for, 
it  was  one  of  the  hardest,  coldest,  and  most  unattractive 
of  men,  whose  heart  seemed  stone,  who  came  boldly  for- 
ward, and  shunned  no  labor,  no  danger,  no  expense  in 
his  efforts  to  save  his  fellow-citizens  from  the  terrible 
scourge.  He  was  reputed  mean  in  his  dealings ;  he 
turned  a  deaf  ear  to  brother  merchants  in  pecuniary 
trouble ;  he  responded  to  no  appeals  for  aid ;  he  cared 
not  for  friendship  ;  he  showed  marble  indifference  to 
the  distress  and  sufferings  of  others.  Yet  this  appar- 
ently heartless  man  voluntarily  took  charge  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia hospital,  nursed  the  sick,  buried  the  dead, 
worked  almost  without  sleep,  and  gave  liberally  of  the 
immense  wealth  for  which  he  had  toiled  with  devotion 
almost  unequaled. 

When  ISTew  England  threatened  to  withdraw  from  the 
Union  and  the  United  States  government  was  crippled 
for  funds ;  w^hen,  after  the  offer  of  great  inducements 
for  a  loan  of  $5,000,000,  but  $20,000  were  subscribed, 
it  was  this  cold,  friendless  man  who  loaned  the  whole 
sum,  and  did  not  hamper  his  loan  by  any  demand  for 
prompt  payment.  He  gave  $5,000^000  for  the  orplians' 
college  in  Philadelphia,  and  the  remainder  of  his 
$20,000,000  for  the  noblest  purposes. 

"  Wait  till  I  am  dead,"  he  used  to  say  ;  "  my  deeds 
will  show  what  I  was."  Hard  and  illiberal  in  his  bar- 
gains, he  was  public  spirited  to  a  remarkable  degree. 
An  unbeliever,  who  named  his  vessels  for  French  athe- 
ists, he  risked  health  and  life,  and  poured  out  money 


400  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

like  water,  to  relieve  those  afflicted  with  yellow  fever, 
as  above  stated.  He  sacrificed  friends,  social  relations, 
education,  and  everything  else  which  would  make  him 
all-powerful  among  men  while  living  and  remembered 
when  dead.  Solitary,  cold,  sour,  repulsive,  and  sordid 
in  life ;  dying,  he  devoted  all  the  results  of  his  wonder- 
ful genius  for  acquisition  to  enterprises  of  the  most  be- 
nignant character.  Here  was  a  man  of  lofty  purposes 
marred  by  the  trials  and  passions  of  life,  but  with  gen- 
erous and  warm  impulses  beneath  the  hard  crust.  Judge 
not  and  ye  shall  not  be  judged. 

Believe  but  half  the  ill  and  credit  twice  the  good  said 
of  your  neighbor. 

"Before  the  birth  of  love  (charity),"  said  Socrates, 
"  many  fearful  things  took  place  through  the  empire  of 
necessity  ;  but  when  this  god  was  born  all  things  arose 
to  men." 

"  Having  in  my  youth  notions  of  severe  piety,"  said 
a  Persian  writer,  "  I  used  to  rise  in  the  night  to  watch, 
pray,  and  read  the  Koran.  One  night,  as  I  was  engaged 
in  these  exercises,  my  father,  a  man  of  practical  virtue, 
awoke  while  I  was  reading.  '  Behold,'  said  I  to  him, 
^  thy  other  children  are  lost  in  irreligious  slumber  while 
I  alone  wake  to  praise  God.'  '  Son  of  my  soul,'  he  an- 
swered, '  it  is  better  to  sleep  than  to  awake  to  remark 
the  faults  of  thy  brothers  ! '  " 

It  is  far  easier  to  see  the  foibles  of  others  than  to 
overlook  them  or  to  avoid  them.  The  burdens  of  others 
are  very  light  for  us,  and  we  are  masters  of  all  griefs 
but  our  own. 

Marathon  had  been  fought ;  Greece  was  still  free ; 
and  each  of  the  victorious  generals  voted  himself  to  be 
first  in  honor  ;  but  all  agreed  that  Miltiades  was  second. 

Some  one  says  that  men  make  fourteen  great  mistakes. 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  set  our  own  standard  of  right 
and  wrong ;  to  judge  people  accordingly ;  to  measure 
the  enjoyment  of  others  by  our  own  ;  to  expect  uniform- 


w 


^i^^^iim^^ 


M^^^iiiiJliiiiJiiiii^^^^ 


FLORENCE    NIGHTINGALE 
'•The  Angel  of  the  Crimea." 
"  The  high  desire  that  others  may  be  blest  savors  of  heaven." 
The  memories  of  such  heroines  of  gentle  charity  who  have  spent  their  days  hang- 
ing sweet  pictures  of  faith  and  trust  in  the  silent  galleries  of  sunless  lives  shall 
never  perish  from  the  earth. 


THE   CHARITIES.  401 

ity  of  opinion  in  tliis  world ;  to  look  for  judgment  and 
experience  in  youth ;  to  endeavor  to  mould  all  disposi- 
tions alike  ;  to  yield  to  immaterial  trifles  ;  to  look  for 
perfection  in  our  own  actions ;  to  worry  ourselves  and 
others  with  what  cannot  be  remedied ;  not  to  alleviate 
all  that  needs  alleviation,  so  far  as  lies  in  our  power ; 
not  to  make  allowance  for  the  infirmities  of  others  ;  to 
consider  everything  impossible  that  we  cannot  perform  ; 
to  believe  only  what  our  finite  minds  can  grasp  ;  to  ex- 
pect to  be  able  to  understand  everything. 

Garfield's  death  did  what  his  life  could  not.  South- 
ern papers  spoke  of  him,  while  lying  in  that  terrible 
suspense  after  he  w^as  shot,  as  "  o««r  President."  Even  in 
those  States  which  had  fought  him  most  bitterly  the 
papers  gave  columns  of  praise  to  the  wounded  man. 

Charity  is  the  brightest  star  in  the  Christian's  diadem. 

When  any  one  w^as  speaking  ill  of  another  in  the 
presence  of  Peter  the  Great,  he  at  first  listened  to  him 
attentively,  and  then  interrupted  him.  "  Is  there  not," 
asked  he,  "  a  fair  side  also  to  the  character  of  the  per- 
son of  whom  you  are  speaking  ?  Come,  tell  me  what 
good  qualities  you  have  remarked  about  him."  One 
would  think  this  monarch  had  learned  the  precept, 
"  Speak  not  evil  one  of  another." 

Lord  Chesterfield,  in  his  will,  referred  to  his  servants 
as  his  "  unfortunate  friends,  equal  by  birth,  and  only 
inferior  by  fortune." 

"  In  my  youth,"  said  Horace  Walpole,  "  I  thought  of 
writing  a  satire  on  mankind,  but  now  in  my  age  I  think 
I  should  write  an  apology  for  tliein." 

^'  I  will  chide  no  heathen  in  the  world  but  myself," 
said  Shakespeare,  "against  whom  I  know  the  most 
faults." 

Every  man  has  little  infirmities  of  temper  and  dispo- 
sition which  require  forgiveness  ;  peculiarities  which 
require  to  be  managed ;  prejudices  which  should  be 
avoided  ;  innocent  habits  which  should   be  indulged ; 


402  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

fixed  opinions  which  should  be  treated  with  respect ; 
particular  feelings  and  delicacies  which  should  be  con- 
sulted. 

"  Let  us  resolve,"  says  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  "  first 
to  attain  the  grace  of  silence  ;  second,  to  deem  all  fault- 
finding that  does  no  good  a  sin,  and  to  resolve,  when  we 
are  happy  ourselves,  not  to  poison  the  atmosphere  for 
our  neighbors  by  calling  on  them  to  mark  every  painful 
and  disagreeable  feature  of  their  daily  life  ;  third,  to 
practice  the  grace  and  virtue  of  praise." 

"  Alas  !  "  exclaimed  Cowper,  "  if  my  best  friend,  who 
laid  down  his  life  for  me,  were  to  remember  all  the  in- 
stances in  which  I  have  neglected  him,  and  to  plead 
them  against  me  in  judgment,  where  should  I  hide  my 
guilty  head  in  the  day  of  recompense  ?  I  will  pray, 
therefore,  for  blessings  on  my  friends,  even  though  they 
cease  to  be  so,  and  upon  my  enemies,  though  they  con- 
tinue such." 

"Forbear  to  judge,"  says  Shakespeare,  "for  we  are 
sinners  all." 

"  He  has  a  measuring-tape,"  said  a  friend  of  Carlyle, 
"  which  is  made  up  of  the  preferences  and  prejudices  of 
Thomas  Carlyle.  By  it  he  tries  everybody,  dead  or  alive. 
If  they  exactly  fill  it,  as  did  Napoleon,  Cromwell,  and 
other  men  of  force,  he  deifies  them.  If  they  fall  sliort, 
he  tramples  them  under  foot,  and  shrieks  out  his  hatred 
and  contempt,  for  all  the  world  to  hear." 

The  wounds  I  might  have  healed ! 

The  human  sorrow  and  smart ! 
And  yet  it  never  was  in  my  soul 

To  play  so  ill  a  part: 
But  evil  is  wrought  by  want  of  Thought, 

As  well  as  want  of  Heart ! 

Hood. 

There  is  a  pathetic  story  in  the  "  Youth's  Companion  " 
of  a  young  girl,  beautiful,  gay,  full  of  spirit  and  vigor, 
who  married  and  had  four  children.  In  course  of  time 
the  husband  died  penniless,  and  the  mother  made  the 


THE  CHARITIES.  403 

most  heroic  efforts  to  educate  the  chiklren.  She  taught 
school,  pamted,  sewed,  and  succeeded  in  sending  the 
boys  to  college  and  the  girls  to  a  boarding-school.  The 
story  concludes :  "  When  they  came  home,  pretty,  re- 
fined girls  and  strong  young  men,  abreast  with  all  the 
new  ideas  and  tastes  of  their  times,  she  was  a  worn-out, 
commonplace  old  woman.  They  had  their  own  pursuits 
and  companions.  She  lingered  among  them  for  two  or 
three  years,  and  then  died,  of  some  sudden  failure  in 
the  brain.  The  shock  woke  them  to  a  consciousness  of 
the  truth.  They  hung  over  her,  as  she  lay  unconscious, 
in  an  agony  of  grief.  The  oldest  son,  as  he  held  her  in 
his  arms,  cried,  '  You  have  been  a  good  mother  to  us  ! ' 
Her  face  colored  again,  her  eyes  kindled  into  a  smile, 
and  she  whispered,  '  You  never  said  so  before,  John.' 
Then  the  light  died  out,  and  she  was  gone." 

"  Oh,  the  malignity  of  a  wrong  world  !  "  said  Bulwer  ; 
"  oh,  that  strange  lust  of  mangling  reputations,  which 
seizes  on  hearts  the  least  wantonly  cruel !  Let  two  idle 
tongues  utter  a  tale  against  some  third  person,  who 
never  offended  the  babblers,  and  how  the  tale  spreads, 
like  fire,  lighted  none  knows  how,  in  the  herbage  of  an 
American  prairie  !    Who  shall  put  it  out  ?  " 

Beecher  says  :  "  When  the  absent  are  spoken  of,  some 
will  speak  gold  of  them,  some  silver,  some  iron,  some 
lead,  and  some  always  speak  dirt ;  for  they  have  a  natu- 
ral attraction  toward  what  is  evil  and  think  it  shows 
penetration  in  them.  I  will  not  say  that  it  is  not  Chris- 
tian to  make  beads  of  others'  faults,  and  tell  them  over 
every  day ;  I  say  it  is  infernal.  "^  If  you  want  to  know 
how  the  devil  feels,  you  do  know  if  you  are  such  a  one." 

"'Twas  but  one  whisper  — one  — 
That  muttered  low,  for  very  shame, 
That  thing  the  slanderer  dare  not  name, 
And  3'et  its  work  was  done." 

It  is  reported  of  Titus  Vespasian,  that  when  any  one 
spoke  ill  of  him,  he  was  wont  to  say  that  he  was  above 


404  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

false  reports  ;  and  if  they  were  true,  lie  had  more  rea- 
son to  be  angry  with  himself  than  with  the  relater.  And 
the  good  Emperor  Theodosius  commanded  that  no  man 
should  be  punished  that  spake  against  him  ;  "  for  what 
is  spoken  slightly,"  said  he,  "  is  to  be  laughed  at ;  what 
sx^itefully,  to  be  pardoned ;  what  angrily,  to  be  pitied ; 
and  if  truly,  I  would  thank  him  for  it." 

In  our  criticism  of  others  we  should  be  mirrors  reflect- 
ing beauties  and  excellences  as  faithfully  as  blemishes 
and  deformities.  Let  us  remember  that,  other  things 
equal,  it  is  the  noblest  man  or  woman  who  puts  the 
highest  and  noblest  estimate  upon  others. 

"  I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  deciding  upon  such  matters 
hastily  or  in  anger,"  wrote  Wellington  late  in  life  to  a 
friend ;  "  and  the  proof  of  this  is,  that  I  never  had  a 
quarrel  with  any  man  in  my  life." 

Charity  seeketh  not  its  own.  No  man  can  be  truly 
rich  who  is  selfish.  Money,  like  a  spring  of  water  in 
the  mountains,  holds  the  fertility  of  the  valley  in  its 
bosom,  if  it  will  only  expend  itself.  Dashing  down 
the  height,  it  makes  the  meadows  glad  with  its  wealth, 
while  beautiful  flowers  spring  up  along  its  banks,  and 
bathe  their  fair  faces  in  its  sparkling  surface.  Obstruct 
it  and  the  valleys  become  parched,  the  flowers  and 
grass  wither  and  die.  The  water  loses  its  sparkle. 
The  beautiful  fountain  becomes  a  stagnant  swamp.  The 
deer  no  longer  comes  to  quench  his  thirst  at  the  pool ; 
the  blessing  becomes  a  curse.  So  it  is  with  money ; 
while  it  flows  out  freely  it  blesses  humanity  ;  but  when 
its  good  work  is  interrupted  by  hoarding,  squandering, 
or  abusing  it,  its  whole  influence  is  injurious.  The 
heart  hardens,  the  sympathies  dry  up,  the  soul  becomes 
a  desert  under  its  blighting  influence. 

The  following  epitaph  was  placed  upon  the  tomb  of 
Edward  (the  Good)  :  — 

"  What  we  gave,  we  have  ; 
What  we  spent,  we  had  ; 
What  we  left,  we  lost." 


THE  CHARITIES.  405 

"  There  is  that  scattereth,  and  yet  increaseth ;  and 
there  is  that  withholdeth  more  than  is  meet,  but  it  tend- 
eth  to  poverty.  The  liberal  soul  shall  be  made  fat ;  and 
he  that  watereth  shall  be  watered  also  himself."  "  Give, 
and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you ;  good  measure,  pressed 
down,  and  shaken  together,  and  running  over,  shall  men 
give  into  your  bosom.  For  the  same  measure  you  mete 
withal  it  shall  be  measured  to  you  again."  "  He  which 
soweth  sparingly  shall  reap  also  sparingly."  "  He  who 
would  sacrifice  at  manhood's  altar  must  come  with  no 
mean  offering.  He  must  be  generous  and  broad  as 
Nature  herself."  "He  who  has  little,  to  him  who  has 
less  can  spare."  "  The  great  depend  on  their  hearts, 
not  on  their  purses."  "  It  is  not  the  wealthy  who  are 
the  generous  givers." 

In  our  eagerness  to  make  the  most  of  life  we  must 
never  forget  the  great  paradox  that  we  can  get  only  by 
giving.  Only  he  who  loses  his  life  shall  find  it.  No 
sowing,  no  reaping,  however  warm  the  sun,  gentle  the 
rain,  or  congenial  the  soil. 

Gladstone  in  the  midst  of  pressing  duties  found  time 
to  visit  a  poor  sick  boy  whom  he  had  seen  sweeping  the 
street  crossings.  He  endeared  himself  to  the  heart  of 
the  English  people  by  this  more  than  by  many  of  the 
great  things  he  did ;  as  did  Phillips  Brooks  by  caring 
for  a  baby  in  the  slums  of  Boston,  that  its  mother  might 
go  out  and  get  fresh  air,  endear  himself  to  the  American 
people  more  than  by  many  great  acts  of  his  noble  life. 

"  The  door  between  us  and  heaven  cannot  be  open 
while  that  between  us  and  our  fellow-men  is  shut." 

The  best  thing  about  giving  of  ourselves  is  that  what 
we  get  is  always  better  than  what  we  give.  The  reac- 
tion is  greater  than  the  action.  We  give  time  and 
money  to  the  poor  and  unfortunate,  but  we  develop 
charity  and  benevolence  —  the  most  divine  virtues. 

"  It  is  now  pouring  rain,"  wrote  William  Howard 
Russell  from  the  English  camp  at  the  Crimea ;    ''  the 


406  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

skies  are  black  as  ink ;  the  wind  is  howling  over  the  stag- 
gering tents ;  the  trenches  are  turned  into  dikes ;  in  the 
tents  the  water  is  sometimes  a  foot  deep ;  our  men  have 
neither  warm  nor  waterproof  clothing  ;  they  are  out  for 
twelve  hours  at  a  time  in  the  trenches  ;  they  are  plunged 
into  the  inevitable  miseries  of  a  winter  campaign, — 
and  not  a  soul  seems  to  care  for  their  comfort,  or  even 
for  their  lives.  These  are  hard  truths,  but  the  people 
of  England  must  hear  them.  They  must  know  that  the 
wretched  beggar  who  wanders  about  the  streets  of  Lon- 
don in  the  rain  leads  the  life  of  a  prince,  compared 
with  the  British  soldiers  who  are  fighting  out  here  for 
their  country.  The  commonest  accessories  of  a  hospi- 
tal are  wanting ;  there  is  not  the  least  attention  paid  to 
decency  or  cleanliness.  The  fetid  air  can  barely  strug- 
gle out  to  taint  the  atmosphere,  save  through  the  chinks 
in  the  walls  and  roofs ;  and,  for  all  I  can  observe,  these 
men  die  without  the  least  effort  being  made  to  save 
them.  The  sick  appear  to  be  tended  by  the  sick,  and 
the  dying  by  the  dying."  The  winter  of  1854  brought 
snow  three  feet  deep  on  a  level,  and  many  were  frozen 
in  their  tents.  Of  an  army  of  forty-five  thousand,  over 
eighteen  thousand  were  in  the  hospitals,  with  a  death 
rate  of  sixty  per  cent,  in  the  "  Great  Barrack." 

As  if  from  the  heaven  that  bent  so  blue  above,  it 
seemed  to  the  suffering  soldiers,  the  "Angel  of  the 
Crimea"  appeared.  But  no,  she  was  flesh  and  blood, 
from  one  of  the  most  beautiful  homes  of  England ;  a 
wealthy,  handsome,  accomplished  maiden,  whose  heart 
had  been  touched  by  the  smothered  wail  of  distress  that 
quivered  in  the  southern  breezes.  Florence  Nightingale 
came  with  an  idea  and  thirty-four  trained  nurses.  She 
found  cholera  raging  in  a  camp  where  Avater  was  a  foot 
deep,  and  the  air  was  reeking  with  the  jooisonous 
effluvia  from  the  unburied  dead.  The  country  was 
almost  impassable  for  the  horses  which  should  have 
brought  supplies,  men  were  but  half  clothed  or  fed,  and 


THE  CHARITIES.  407 

filth  and  pestilence  were  reaping  a  ghastly  harvest. 
She  established  a  laundry,  an  invalid's  kitchen,  a  course 
of  entertaining  lectures  for  convalescents  ;  arranged  for 
draining  the  camp ;  and  then  began  to  give  personal  at- 
tention to  the  sufferers.  She  was  nobly  aided  by  her 
sister  nurses.  Now  gently  smoothing  the  pillow  of  a 
dying  man,  now  writing  letters  home  for  those  whose 
nerveless  hands  were  unequal  to  the  task,  here  speaking 
an  encouraging  word,  and  there  bestowing  a  smile  of 
sympathy,  these  angels  in  human  form  flitted  around 
the  beds  of  the  suffering  soldiers  to  such  good  effect 
that  in  a  year  and  a  half  the  death  rate  was  reduced  to 
a  little  over  one  per  cent.  "  Blessed  are  the  merciful," 
took  on  a  new  meaning  to  many  a  sick  man  as  he 
watched  those  radiant  faces  and  lissome  forms  that 
seemed  to  float  in  Godlike  ministry  through  the  crowded 
wards  of  the  Crimean  hospitals. 

"Wherever  there  is  disease  in  its  most  dangerous 
form,  and  the  hand  of  the  spoiler  most  distressingly 
nigh,"  wrote  the  correspondent  of  the  London  "  Times," 
"there  is  that  incomparable  woman  sure  to  be  seen ;  her 
benignant  presence  is  an  influence  for  good  comfort 
even  amid  the  struggles  of  expiring  nature.  She  is  a 
^  ministering  angel,'  without  any  exaggeration,  in  these 
hospitals,  and  as  her  slender  form  glides  quietly  along 
each  corridor  every  poor  fellow's  face  softens  with 
gratitude  at  the  sight  of  her.  When  all  the  medical 
officers  have  retired  for  the  night,  and  silence  and  dark- 
ness have  settled  down  upon  these  miles  of  prostrate 
sick,  she  may  be  observed,  alone,  with  a  little  lamp  in 
her  hand,  making  her  solitary  rounds."  "She  would 
speak  to  one  and  another,"  a  soldier  wrote  home,  "  and 
nod  and  smile  to  many  more ;  but  she  could  not  do  it  to 
all,  you  know,  for  we  lay  there  by  hundreds ;  but  we 
could  kiss  her  shadow  as  it  fell,  and  lay  our  heads  on 
our  pillows  again  content." 

I  often  wonder  what  the  selfishness  and  hard-hearted- 


408  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

ness  of  the  human  race  would  lead  to  had  not  a  kind 
Providence  placed  amongst  us  the  poor  and  wretched, 
that  the  sight  of  their  misfortunes  might  stimulate  us 
to  keep  alive  the  spark  of  charity  and  benevolence 
which  He  implanted  in  the  human  breast. 

The  poor  and  unfortunate  are  our  opportunity,  our 
character-builders,  the  great  schoolmasters  of  our  moral 
and  Christian  growth.  Every  kind  and  noble  deed 
performed  for  others  is  transmuted  into  food  which 
nourishes  the  motive  promoting  its  performance,  and 
strengthens  the  muscles  of  habit. 

Grander  discoveries  than  any  that  have  yet  been 
made,  revelations  that  lay  beyond  the  ken  of  Bacon's 
far-seeing  vision,  and  beauties  that  shone  outside  the 
imagination  of  Shakespeare,  await  the  evoking  power  of 
philanthropic  genius.  Benevolence  is  a  world  of  itself, 
a  world  which  mankind,  as  yet,  has  hardly  begun  to  ex- 
plore. Justice,  love,  honor,  truth,  are  the  corner-stones 
of  the  holy  government  which  is  yet  to  be  organized 
upon  earth.  For  all  true-hearted  adventurers  into  these 
new  realms  of  enterprise  there  are  moral  Edens  to  be 
planted,  such  as  Milton  with  his  celestial  verse  could 
never  describe ;  and  there  are  heights  of  moral  sublim- 
ity to  be  attained,  such  as  Eosse,  with  his  telescope, 
could  never  descry. 

"  I  was  only  twenty-four  years  of  age  when  in  Paris, 
whither  I  had  gone  with  means  given  me  by  a  friend," 
said  Louis  Agassiz,  the  great  zoologist ;  "  but  I  was  at 
last  about  to  resign  my  studies,  from  want  of  ability  to 
meet  my  expenses.  Professor  Mitscherlich  was  then 
on  a  visit  in  Paris,  and  he  had  asked  me  what  was  the 
cause  of  my  depressed  feelings ;  I  told  him  I  had  to  go 
for  I  had  nothing  left.  The  next  morning,  as  I  was 
seated  at  breakfast,  in  front  of  the  yard  of  the  hotel 
where  I  lived,  I  saw  the  servant  of  Humboldt  approach. 
He  handed  me  a  note,  saying  there  was  no  answer,  and 
disappeared.     I  opened  the  note,  and  I  see  it  now  be- 


THE   CHARITIES.  409 

fore  me  as  distinctly  as  if  I  held  the  paper  in  my  hand. 
It  said :  "  My  friend,  I  hear  that  you  intend  leaving 
Paris  in  consequence  of  some  embarrassment.  That 
shall  not  be.  I  wish  you  to  remain  here  as  long  as  the 
object  for  which  you  came  is  not  accomplished.  I  in- 
close you  a  check  for  fifty  pounds.  It  is  a  loan  which 
you  may  repay  when  you  can."     Charity  never  faileth. 

From  a  lighted  candle  a  thousand  others  may  be  lit 
without  diminishing  its  flame. 

What  an  abounding  charity  was  shown  in  the  life  of 
Christ !  Eeviled,  He  reviled  not  again,  but  steadily,  ear- 
nestly, unfalteringly  pursued  His  object,  the  leadership 
and  love  of  mankind.  The  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever,  He  wins  his  onward  way  by  the  influence  of 
His  perfect  humanity  in  scarcely  less  degree  than  by 
His  divine  attributes. 

"  Every  man  shall  bear  his  own  burden."  "  True," 
says  Bulwer,  "  but  now  turn  to  an  easier  verse  in  the 
same  chapter,  —  ^  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens,  and  so 
fulfill  the  law  of  Christ.' " 

"  If  any  little  word  of  mine  can  make  a  life  the  brighter, 
If  any  little  song  of  mine  can  make  a  heart  the  lighter, 
God  help  me  speak  the  little  word,  and  take  my  bit  of  singing 
And  drop  it  in  some  lonel}'  vale,  to  set  the  echoes  ringing." 

Judge  not: 
What  looks  to  thy  dim  eyes  a  stain 
In  God's  pure  light  may  only  be 
A  scar  brought  from  some  well-won  field, 
Where  thou  wouldst  only  faint  and  yield. 

Adelaide  A.  Procter. 
Then  gently  scan  your  brother  man, 

Still  gentler  sister  wom'an  : 
Though  they  may  gang  a  kennin'  wrang, 

To  step  aside  is  human. 
Who  made  the  heart,  't  is  He  alone 

Decidedly  can  try  us  : 
He  knows  each  chord,  —  its  various  tone, 

Each  spring,  —  its  various  bias : 
Then  at  the  balance  let 's  be  mute, 

We  never  can  adjust  it: 
What 's  done  we  partly  may  compute, 
But  know  not  what 's  resisted. 

Burns. 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 

THE    CURSE    OF    IDLENESS. 

"Idleness  is  the  sepulchre  of  the  living  man." 
Absence  of  occupation  is  not  rest; 
A  mind  quite  vacant  is  a  mind  distressed. 

COWPER. 

Lost  wealth  ma}^  be  restored  by  industry,  the  wreck  of  health  regained 
by  temperance,  forgotten  knowledge  restored  by  stud}';  but  whoever 
looked  on  a  vanished  hour,  or  recalled  his  neglected  opportunities  — 
Heaven's  record  of  wasted  time  ?—  Mrs.  Sigourney. 

An  idler  is  a  watch  that  wants  both  hands ; 

As  useless  if  it  goes  as  when  it  stands. 

COVVPER. 

Doing  nothing  is  an  apprenticeship  to  doing  wrong.  —  W.  F.  Crafts. 
Sloth,  like  rust,  consumes  faster  than  labor  wears.  — Franklin. 
If  you  are  idle  you  are  on  the  way  to  ruin,  and  there  are  few  stopping- 
places  upon  it.     It  is  rather  a  precipice  than  a  road.  — H.  W.  Beecher. 
A  millstone  and  the  human  heart  are  driven  ever  round ; 
If  they  have  nothing  else  to  grind,  the}^  must  themselves  be  ground. 

Von  Logau. 
Every  man's  task  is  his  life-preserver.  —  George  B.  Emerson. 
Labor  is  life !     'T  is  still  water  that  faileth; 
Idleness  ever  despaireth,  bewaileth ; 
Keep  the  watch  wound,  or  the  dark  rust  assaileth. 

Mrs.  Osgood. 
There  is  a  firefly  in  the  southern  clime 
"Which  shineth  only  when  upon  the  wing  ; 
So  is  it  with  the  mind: 
When  once  we  rest,  we  darken. 

Bailey. 
"Arise,  Methuselah,  and  build  thee  a  house,"  said  the  angel  in  an  old 
legend,  "for  thou  shalt  live  j'et  five  hundred  years  longer."     But  Me- 
thuselah, then  five  centuries  old,  replied:   **  If  I  am  to  live  but  five  hun- 
dred years  longer,  it  is  not  worth  while  to  build  me  a  house." 

"He   is   a   dreadfully  lazy   man,"  began   Spurgeon, 
when  asked  to  enumerate  the  bad  habits  of  a  ne'er-do- 


THE  CURSE  OF  IDLENESS.  411 

well.  "  Stop  !  "  exclaimed  the  old  clergyman  to  whom 
he  was  speaking,  "  all  sorts  of  sins  are  included  in  this 
one."  There  never  was  a  truer  saying  than  that  "  an 
idle  brain  is  the  devil's  workshop."  Indeed,  while  "  The 
devil  tempts  all  other  men,  the  idle  man  tempts  the 
devil." 

The  following  printer's  squib  is  suggestive  :  — 

"  AUCTION. 

"  Will  be  sold  by  Public  Vendue,  Friday,  the  18th  of 
August,  at  the  house  of  Lemuel  Poorsoul,  in  Nopenny 
Township,  in  the  County  of  Lackthrift,  a  litter  of  Pups, 
two  Gamecocks,  three  Jugs,  one  Checker-Board,  and  a 
Euchre  Pack." 

"Nature  knows  no  pause,"  writes  Goethe,  "and  at- 
taches a  curse  upon  all  inaction." 

While  a  criminal  was  exchanging  his  own  for  a  prison 
suit  in  the  penitentiary  of  Connecticut  he  remarked, 
"  I  never  did  a  day's  work  in  my  life."  JSTo  wonder 
that  he  reached  the  state  prison. 

"  Out  of  work  "  has  caused  more  crime  and  wretched- 
ness than  almost  anything  else. 

These  words  were  found  tattooed  on  the  right  arm  of 
a  convict  in  a  French  prison :  "  The  past  has  deceived 
me,  the  present  torments  me,  and  the  future  terrifies 
me."  His  life  had  been  spent  in  idleness,  which  led  to 
crime. 

"  No  trade  "  is  the  open  sesame  to  our  jails.  It  is 
said  that  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  convicts  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Prison  at  Charlestown  entered  by  the 
password,  "  No  trade." 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  writing  to  his  son  at  school,  says : 
"  I  cannot  too  much  impress  upon  your  mind  that  labor 
is-  the  condition  which  God  has  imposed  on  us  in  every 
station  of  life ;  there  is  nothing  worth  having  that  can 


412  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

be  had  without  it.  As  for  knowledge,  it  can  no  more 
be  planted  in  the  human  mind  without  labor  than  a 
field  of  wheat  can  be  produced  without  the  previous 
use  of  the  plow.  If  we  neglect  our  spring,  our  summer 
will  be  useless  and  contemptible,  our  harvest  will  be 
chaff,  and  the  winter  of  our  old  age  unrespected  and 
desolate." 

When  asked  the  cause  of  his  brother's  death.  Sir 
Horace  Vere  replied,  "  He  died,  sir,  of  having  nothing 
to  do."  "  Ah  !  "  said  the  Marquis  of  Si^inola,  ''  that  is 
enough  to  kill  any  general  of  us  all." 

Epes  Sargent  says  that  the  man  who  did  not  think  it 
respectable  to  bring  up  his  children  to  work  has  just 
heard  from  his  three  sons.  One  is  a  driver  on  a  canal ; 
another  has  been  arrested  as  a  vagrant ;  and  a  third  has 
gone  to  a  certain  institution,  to  learn  to  hammer  stone 
under  a  keeper. 

A  lazy  fellow  once  complained  that  he  could  not  find 
bread  for  his  family.  "  Neither  can  I,"  said  an  honest 
laborer ;  "  I  have  to  work  for  all  the  bread  I  get." 

A  lazy  youth  will  be  a  lazy  man  just  as  surely  as  a 
crooked  sapling  makes  a  crooked  tree.  Laziness  grows 
on  people  ;  it  begins  a  cobweb  and  ends  in  iron  chains. 
If  you  will  be  nothing,  just  wait  to  be  somebody.  Idle- 
ness travels  very  leisurely  and  poverty  soon  overtakes 
her.  To  be  idle  is  to  be  poor.  Leisure  is  sweet  to 
those  who  have  earned  it,  but  burdensome  to  those  who 
get  it  for  nothing. 

Who  are  you,  young  man,  in  the  prime  and  vigor  of 
manhood,  that  you  should  be  exempt  from  life's  bur- 
dens and  duties  and  eat  bread  earned  by  the  sweat  of 
another's  brow,  when  you  have  never  added  a  farthing 
to  the  coffers  of  the  Avorld  ?  What  if  the  sheep  refuse 
the  wool  to  cover  your  lazy  back,  and  its  body  to 
gratify  your  gluttonous  stomach  ?  What  if  the  earth 
refuse  bread  to  prolong  your  useless,  idle  life  ? 

^'  The  first  external  revelation  of  the  dry-rot  in  men," 


THE  CURSE   OF  IDLENESS.  413 

says  Dickens,  "  is  a  tendency  to  lurk  and  lounge  ;  to  be 
at  street  corners  without  intelligible  reasons  ;  to  be 
going  anywhere  when  met;  to  be  about  many  places 
rather  than  any ;  to  do  nothing  tangible  but  to  have  an 
intention  of  performing  a  number  of  tangible  duties 
to-morrow  or  the  day  after." 

No  man  is  wretched  in  his  energy. 

Idleness,  especially  that  of  beggars,  was  once  pun- 
ishable in  England  even  by  death.  The  first  offence 
was  punished  by  whipping ;  after  the  second  offence, 
the  upper  part  of  the  ear  was  cut  off  ;  the  third  offence 
incurred  imprisonment  in  jail.  If  indicted  for  wander- 
ing, idleness,  loitering,  and  found  guilty,  "  he  shall 
have  judgment  to  suffer  pains  and  execution  of  death 
as  a  felon,  and  as  an  enemy  of  the  commonwealth." 

In  Athens  idleness  was  a  punishable  crime,  and  not 
only  were  the  citizens  compelled  to  industry,  but  to  the 
utmost  exertion  of  their  talents.  It  was  not  enough 
that  each  should  choose  a  profession ;  the  court  of 
Areopagus  inquired  into  and  ascertained  the  extent  of 
his  funds,  the  amount  of  his  expenditures,  and  the 
measure  of  his  industry  and  economy. 

A  young  German  nobleman  supplemented  a  college 
course  by  extensive  travel,  and  then  returned  to  live 
in  idleness  upon  his  large  estate.  Life  soon  became  so 
insupportable  that  he  told  a  friend  that  he  should  com- 
mit suicide  the  following  night.  The  friend,  a  manu- 
facturer, made  no  attempt  to  dissuade  him ;  but  asked 
him,  as  a  final  favor,  to  inspect  some  interesting  work 
on  Avhich  his  operatives  were  engaged.  The  nobleman 
came ;  and,  at  a  sign  from  the  manufacturer,  several 
workmen  seized  the  visitor,  put  a  blouse  on  him,  and 
made  him  work  hard.  When  the  laborers  stopped  for 
refreshment  the  visitor  was  so  tired  and  hungry  that 
he  was  glad  to  sit  down  with  the  others  to  a  lunch  of 
black  bread,  sausages,  and  beer.  How  good  it  tasted, 
and   how  welcome  seemed   the   few  minutes   of   rest ! 


414  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  Friend,"  said  a  workman  who  learned  of  his  suicidal 
intent,  "you  see  before  you  the  father  of  five  children. 
I  lost  three  of  them  at  one  fell  swoop.  I  was  almost 
crazy ;  I  wished  to  follow  them.  But  I  had  to  work 
for  the  rest,  who  are  dearer  to  me  than  life  itself ;  and 
now  working  for  them  has  made  life  sweet  to  me." 
The  nobleman  thanked  his  friend  for  playing  so  shrewd 
a  trick,  and  at  once  began  a  long  and  happy  career  of 
usefulness. 

The  emptiness  and  misery  sometimes  found  in  idle 
high  life  is  illustrated  by  the  following  letter  written 
by  a  French  countess  to  the  absent  count  :  — 

Dear  Husband, — Not  knowing  what  else  to  do  I 
will  write  to  you.  Not  knowing  what  to  say,  I  will  now 
close.  Wearily  yours. 

Countess  De  E. 

De  Quincey  pictures  a  woman  sailing  over  the  water 
in  a  boat  awakening  out  of  a  sleep  to  find  her  necklace 
untied.  One  end  hangs  over  the  side  of  the  boat,  and 
pearl  after  pearl  drops  into  the  stream.  While  she 
clutches  at  one,  just  falling,  another  drops  beyond  her 
grasp.  Like  these  pearls  from  the  string,  our  hours 
and  days  drop  one  after  another,  and  are  forever  be- 
yond our  reach. 

"  I  look  upon  indolence  as  a  sort  of  suicide,"  wrote 
Lord  Chesterfield  to  his  son,  "  for  by  it  the  man  is 
efficiently  destroyed,  although  the  appetite  of  the  brute 
may  survive." 

There  is  no  one  thing  which  will  sooner  wreck  a 
young  man  and  utterly  ruin  all  his  future  prospects 
than  the  reputation  of  being  lazy,  shiftless.  If  possi- 
ble, dawdlers,  who  are  forever  dillydallying,  are  worse 
than  lazy  people.  A  dawdler  is  absolutely  good  for  no- 
thing. If  a  young  man  is  going  to  amount  to  anything 
his  success  will  depend  very  largely  upon  his  reputa- 


THE   CURSE   OF  IDLENESS.  415 

tion  —  what  other  people  think  of  him.  No  one  is  will- 
ing to  praise  or  help  a  dawdler.  A  young  man  must 
have  the  reputation  of  being  prompt,  energetic,  decisive, 
earnest,  and  true,  if  he  would  have  the  assistance  of 
others  ;  and,  without  this,  success  is  impossible. 

An  old  sea  captain  so  dreaded  this  habit  of  dawdling 
among  his  crew,  because  it  demoralized  all  discipline, 
that  when  he  could  find  nothing  else  for  them  to  do  he 
would  make  them  scour  the  anchor. 

Who  does  not  know  some  member  of  the  "Idle 
Family "  ?  Idleness  is  a  sly  thief ;  she  snatches  a 
minute  here  and  a  few  minutes  there  ;  she  clips  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  from  your  music  lesson,  or  your  other 
duties.  We  determine  every  morning  that  she  shall 
have  none  of  this  day,  but  every  night  we  have  to  con- 
fess her  petty  thefts  with  chagrin.  She  holds  you 
"just  a  minute"  till  your  train  has  gone,  "just  a  min- 
ute "  till  the  bank  has  closed ;  she  induces  you  to  get 
your  house  insured  to-morrow,  but  it  burns  to-night ; 
to  apply  for  the  situation  to-morrow,  but  it  is  taken  to- 
day. She  makes  you  tardy  at  school,  just  a  little  late 
for  your  engagements,  until  you  have  lost  your  reputa- 
tion for  promptness  and  ruined  your  credit. 

It  is  well  for  every  youth  to  post  up  in  his  study  or 
room  a  list  of  "thieves"  or  "time  wasters,^'  such  as 
dawdling,  half  working,  listless  working,  working  with- 
out energy,  aimless  working,  oversleeping,  late  rising, 
loafing,  useless  visiting,  fooling,  working  merely  for  the 
sake  of  working,  overworking,  studying  with  jaded, 
weary  mind  and  flagging  energies,  useless  letter  writing, 
idle  calling,  amusements  which  are  not  necessary  for 
health  or  recreation,  callers  and  visitors  who  steal  away 
precious  hours  and  minutes,  dreaming,  talking  nonsense, 
building  air  castles,  killing  time  traveling  without  a 
purpose,  reading  foolish  stories,  procrastination,  sloth, 
half  doing  things  which  never  amount  to  anything  be- 
cause not  finished. 


v: 


416  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

A  printer's  handbook  contains  the  following  items  :  — 

SOCIETY   TO    PROMOTE    HABITS    OF    INDUSTRY. 

Initiation  of  Members.  Knowing  that  the  Human  Hand, 
intelligently  educated  and  skillfully  employed,  has  delivered 
man  from  Barbarism,  and  made  his  position  far  superior  to 
that  of  animals  not  possessing  this  most  useful  appendage,  I 
therefore  truly  and  Faithfully  Covenant 

That  my  hands,  and  those  of  others  placed  under  my 
charge,  shall  be  carefully  trained  in  some  Handicraft  bene- 
ficial to  the  race,  and  that  I  will  on  all  occasions  endeavor  to 
keep  them  diligently  employed. 

Philanthropic  Busybody. 

report  of  committee  on  extension  of  usefulness. 

Recommendations  for  Future  Activity.  In  the  prosecution 
of  our  labors  we  find  many  persons  living  under  trees  expect- 
ing fruit  to  drop  into  their  mouths,  others  waiting  for  some- 
thing to  turn  up,  numbers  lingering  around  hoping  to  step 
into  other  people's  shoes,  some  who  appear  anxious  to  shovel 
snow  in  summer  or  harvest  grain  in  mid-winter,  many  sighing 
for  Luck  to  come  their  way.  or  looking  for  a  Big  Prize  from 
the  lottery  or  race  track,  and  a  multitude  who  in  other  waj^s 
are  waiting  for  the  improbable ;  we  therefore  advise  that  a 
number  of  the  most  energetic  of  our  co-laborers  be  sent  to  stir 
them  up  to  a  sense  of  practical  duty. 

"I  remember,"  says  Hillard,  "a  satirical  poem,  in 
which  the  devil  is  represented  as  fishing  for  men,  and 
adapting  his  bait  to  the  tastes  and  temperaments  of  his 
prey ;  but  the  idlers  were  the  easiest  victims,  for  they 
swallowed  even  the  naked  hook."  The  mind  of  the 
idler  preys  upon  itself. 

It  is  the  holidays,  the  evenings,  the  spare  moments 
that  try  character ;  the  great  strain  does  not  come  in  the 
busy  day. 

If  you  want  to  know  a  young  man's  character,  find 
out  what  he  does  Avith  his  spare  minutes.  What  do  they 
mean  to  him  ?  What  does  he  see  in  them  ?  Does  he 
see  education,  self-culture,  a  coveted  book,  in   the   odd 


THE   CURSE   OF  IDLENESS.  417 

moments  and  half-holidays  which  others  throw  away ; 
or  does  he  see  a  sparring-match,  a  saloon,  a  gambling- 
place,  horse-racing,  or  a  pool  table  ? 

Many  a  man,  after  acqniring  a  fortune  by  habits  of 
industry  and  economy,  has  retired  to  enjoy  the  leisure 
to  which  he  has  so  long  looked  forward  as  the  goal  of 
competence,  onl}^  to  find  a  life  of  idleness  so  intolerable 
that  he  must  choose  between  a  renewal  of  business  ac- 
tivity or  death  from  the  lack  of  anything  to  keep  the 
vital  forces  in  motion.  For  the  first  time  he  learns  that 
the  command  to  live  for  a  purpose  is  intended  for  our 
good,  as  without  some  purpose  we  cannot  long  exist. 
As  digestion  is  measured  by  appetite,  our  hold  on  life  is 
measured  by  our  interest  in  various  objects  of  thought. 

The  mind  must  be  active,  and  if  we  do  not  furnish 
worthy  employment,  it  will  feed  upon  itself  and  consume 
its  own  substance.  The  man  without  definite  work 
soon  becomes  the  victim  of  a  diseased  mind.  Melan- 
choly and  disappointment  prey  upon  him  and  rob  him 
of  aspiration  and  happiness. 

Nature  demands  that  you  labor  until  you.  are  tired  be- 
fore she  will  reward  you  with  sweet,  refreshing  sleep 
and  a  ravenous  appetite,  —  luxuries  which  the  idle  and 
the  lazy  never  enjoy.  She  reserves  these  boons  for  her 
hard-handed  toilers.  As  their  pay  is  small  she  gives 
them  this  additional  compensation  for  doing  the  world's 
drudgery. 

The  bicycle  falls  the  moment  it  stops ;  industry  keeps 
many  a  life  from  falling. 

The  man  who  stands  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets 
month  after  month  while  others  are  working  will  soon 
have  them  in  other  folks'  pockets. 

The  let-alone  principle  is  dangerous.  Let  your  brain 
alone  and  you  will  become  an  imbecile.  Let  your  land 
alone  and  you  will  become  a  pauper.  Let  your  neigh- 
bor alone  and  you  will  become  selfish.  Let  your  soul 
alone  and  you  will  become  devilish. 


418  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

A  lazy  man  is  of  no  more  use  in  the  world  than  a 
dead  man,  and  he  takes  up  more  room.  Who  waits 
for  something  to  turn  up,  often  turns  up  himself  in 
jail. 

"  There  is  a  perennial  nobleness  and  even  sacredness 
in  work,"  said  Carlyle.  "  Were  he  never  so  benighted, 
forgetful  of  his  high  calling,  there  is  always  hope  in  a 
man  who  honestly  and  earnestly  works  ;  in  idleness 
alone  is  there  perpetual  desx^air." 

"  Consider  how,  even  in  the  meanest  sorts  of  labor, 
the  whole  soul  of  man  is  composed  into  a  kind  of  real 
harmony  the  instant  he  sets  himself  to  work.  Doubt, 
Desire,  Sorrow,  Eemorse,  Indignation,  Despair  itself,  all 
these  like  hell-dogs  lie  beleaguering  the  soul  of  the 
poor  day-worker,  as  of  every  man ;  but  he  bends  him- 
self with  free  valor  against  his  task,  and  all  these  are 
stilled,  all  these  shrink,  murmuring  far  off  into  their 
caves.  The  man  is  now  a  man.  The  blessed  glow  of 
labor  in  him,  is  it  not  as  purifying  fire  ?  " 

There  is  great  competition  in  shirking,  and  pretty 
hard  work  is  made  of  it  sometimes.  Perhaps  the  most 
humiliating  exhibition  which  shirks  make  of  themselves, 
as  Holland  says,  is  on  the  occasion  of  a  change  in  the 
national  administration.  One  hundred  dollars  in  bor- 
rowed money,  three  clean  shirts,  a  long  petition,  an 
anxious  face,  and  a  carpet  bag  form  the  outfit  of  some- 
thing less  than  100,000  able-bodied  men  who  make  pil- 
grimages to  Washington  once  in  four  years.  They 
consider  this  a  government  of  the  politician,  for  the  pol- 
itician, and  by  the  politician. 

"  If  ever  this  free  people  —  this  government  —  is 
utterly  demoralized,"  said  Lincoln,  "  it  will  come  from 
this  human  struggle  for  office,  —  a  way  to  live  with- 
out Avork." 

"  There  is  one  plain  rule  of  life,"  says  John  Stuart 
Mill,  "  eternally  binding,  and  independent  of  all  varia- 
tions in  creeds,  embracing  equally  the  greatest  moral- 


THE   CURSE   OF  IDLENESS.  419 

ists  and  the  smallest.  It  is  this  :  try  thyself  unwea- 
riedly  till  thou  fiiidest  the  highest  thing  thou  art  capable 
of  doing,  faculties  and  outward  circumstances  being 
both  duly  considered,  and  then  do  it."  Euskin,  on  be- 
ing told  of  a  man  who  was  a  genius,  immediately 
inquired,  "  Does  he  work  ?  " 

Thousands  of  honest  people  who  would  cut  their  hands 
off  sooner  than  steal  a  penny  from  me  do  not  hesitate 
to  drop  in  on  me  and  steal  an  hour  of  my  time  which  no 
money  can  replace.  He  who  steals  the  time  of  a  public 
servant  trespasses  on  a  nation's  time. 

"  Nothing  is  worse  for  those  who  have  business  than 
the  visits  of  those  who  have  none,"  was  the  motto  of  a 
Scotch  editor. 

Not  until  the  wounds  of  the  world  are  healed,  not 
until  the  last  thirsty  soul  has  been  led  to  the  Eiver  of 
Life,  has  an  able-bodied  man  a  right  to  lay  down  his 
armor  and  call  a  halt. 

Time  is  exactly  what  we  make  it :  in  the  hands  of 
the  wise,  a  blessing;  in  the  hands  of  the  foolish,  a 
curse ;  in  the  hands  of  the  wise,  a  preparation  for  life 
eternal ;  in  the  hands  of  the  foolish,  a  preparation  for 
the  condemnation  that  is  everlasting.  To  you  it  is 
much ;  to  your  neighbor,  it  is  naught. 

John  Euskin  keeps  before  him  constantly,  inscribed 
upon  a  large  piece  of  chalcedony,  "■  To-day." 

Could  I  give  the  youth  of  this  country  but  one  word 
of  advice  it  would  be  this  :  Let  no  moment  pass  until 
you  have  extracted  from  it  every  possibility.  WatcJi 
every  grain  in  the  hourglass. 

Make  each  day  stand  for  something.  Neither  heaven 
nor  earth  has  any  place  for  the  drone  ;  he  is  a  libel  on 
his  species.  No  glamour  of  wealth  or  social  prestige 
can  hide  his  essential  ugliness.  It  is  better  to  carry  a 
hod  or  wield  a  shovel  in  honest  endeavor  to  be  of  some 
use  to  humanity  than  to  be  nursed  in  luxury  and  be  a 
parasite. 


420  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

"  Work,  work,  m}'  boy,  be  not  afraid; 
Look  labor  boldly  in  the  face; 
Take  up  the  hammer  or  the  spade, 
And  blush  not  for  your  humble  place." 

Lost!  lost!  lost! 

A  gem  of  countless  price, 
Cut  from  the  living  rock, 

And  graved  in  Paradise : 
Set  round  with  three  times  eight 

Large  diamonds,  clear  and  bright, 
And  each  with  sixty  smaller  ones. 

All  changeful  as  the  light. 

Mrs.  L.  H.  Sigourney. 

Labor  is  rest  from  the  sorrows  that  greet  us, 
Rest  from  all  petty  vexations  that  meet  us, 
Rest  from  sin-promptings  that  ever  entreat  us, 
Rest  from  world-sirens  that  lure  us  to  ill. 
Work  —  and  pure  slumbers  shall  wait  on  thy  pillow; 
Work  — thou  shalt  ride  over  Care's  combing  billow ; 
Lie  not  down  wearied  'neath  woe's  weeping  willow; 
Work  with  a  stout  heart  and  resolute  will. 

F.  S.  Osgood. 


HENRY    CLAY 
"  The  Mill-Boy  of  the  Slashes." 
The  world  is  self-taught  in  a  thousand  cases  where  it  is  college  bred  in  one. 
To  live  in  America,  Emerson's  '■  land  of   opportunity,"    is  an  inspiration,   an 
education  in  itself. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS. 

Experience  keeps  a  dear  school,  but  fools  will  learn  in  no  other,  and 
scarce  in  that.  —  Fkanklin. 

One  good  mother  is  worth  a  hundred  schoolmasters.  —  Geokge  Her- 
bert. 

Biography,  especially  of  the  great  and  good,  who  have  risen  by  their 
own  exertions  to  eminence  and  usefulness,  is  an  inspiring  and  ennobling 
study.  Its  direct  tendency  is  to  reproduce  the  excellence  it  records. — 
Horace  Mann. 

Ages  on  ages  after  the  poor  clay  in  which  the  creative  intellect  was  en- 
shrined has  mouldered  back  to  its  kindred  dust,  the  truths  which  it  has 
unfolded,  moral  or  intellectual,  are  holding  on  their  pathway  of  light  and 
glory,  awakening  other  minds  to  the  same  heavenly  career. — Edward 
Everett. 

Lives  Phidias  in  his  work  alone  ? 

His  Jove  returns  to  air : 
But  wake  one  Godlike  shape  from  stone, 
And  Phidian  thought  is  there ! 

.  Blot  out  the  Iliad  from  the  earth. 
Still  Homer's  thought  would  fire 
Each  deed  that  boasts  sublimer  worth, 
And  each  diviner  lyre. 

Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 

We  can  make  our  lives  sublime, 
And,  departing,  leave  behind  us 

Footprints  on  the  sands  of  time. 

I  am  a  part-  of  all  that  I  have  met. 


Lttton. 

Longfellow. 
Tennyson. 


More  than  two  hundred  years  before  Christ  a  power- 
ful ruler  of  Egypt  expended  nearly  $1,000,000  in  the 
erection  of  a  marble  tower  four  hundred  feet  high,  on 
the  island  of  Pharos,  opposite  Alexandria.     He  ordered 


422  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

that  a  marble  tablet  should  be  built  into  the  wall  near 
the  summit,  bearing  his  name  in  conspicuous  letters. 
When  the  vast  structure  was  completed,  it  was  consid- 
ered one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world.  From  its 
top  a  light  shone  by  night  as  a  beacon  to  sailors  far  out 
on  the  Mediterranean.  By  day  it  was  visited  by  thou- 
sands of  curious  travelers,  who  read  on  the  tablet  the 
inscription  "Ptolemy  II.,  Philadelphus."  For  many 
years  the  name  of  the  royal  founder  stood  out  in  bold 
relief,  but  it  was  written  on  mortar  made  to  imitate 
marble,  spread  over  the  face  of  the  tablet.  Time  grad- 
ually removed  the  inscription ;  the  mortar,  crumbling, 
fell ;  and  then,  carved  in  enduring  stone,  appeared  the 
name  of  the  Greek  architect,  Sostratus,  who  had  secretly 
taken  this  course  to  perpetuate  his  own  name  as  the 
true  author  of  the  beauty,  strength,  and  grandeur  ex- 
pressed by  the  lofty  pile. 

So  many  an  eminent  man  in  the  zenith  of  his  fame  is 
regarded  as  the  product  of  some  party  or  system,  but 
when  the  label  grows  dim  and  disappears,  there  stands 
out  in  the  life  the  deeply  graven  name,  "  Mother,"  per- 
haps all  unknown  to  the  crowd  which  applauds  her 
son. 

The  first  act  of  President  Garfield  after  taking  the 
oath  of  office  was  to  kiss  his  aged  mother.  "  I  owe 
everything  I  am  and  have,"  he  said,  "  to  my  mother." 

"  A  kiss  from  my  mother  made  me  a  painter,"  said 
Benjamin  West.  "  If  the  whole  world  were  put  into 
one  scale  and  my  mother  in  the  other,"  said  Lord  Lang- 
dale,  "  the  world  would  kick  the  beam." 

"  As  soon  as  we  are  born,"  said  Goethe,  "  the  world 
begins  to  work  upon  us,  and  this  goes  on  to  the  end." 

"  Speak  to  the  earth  and  it  shall  teach  thee,"  said 
Job. 

And  this  our  life,  exempt  from  public  haunt, 

Finds  tongues  in  trees,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 

Sermons  in  stones,  and  good  in  everj-thing. 

SlIAKESPEAKE. 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS.     423 

The  country  boy  often  bemoans  his  lack  of  a  chance 
as  did  Clay,  Webster,  and  thousands  of  others,  and  thinks 
his  youth  among  the  rocks,  the  mountains,  the  forests, 
has  been  almost  thrown  away ;  and  he  longs  for  the  time 
when  he  can  shake  off  his  farm  fetters,  and  flee  to  the 
city  where  there  is  opportunity.  But  years  after,  in 
some  great  legislative  emergency  perhaps,  in  some  c<:>ii- 
test  with  the  city-bred  youth,  the  rocks,  the  mountains, 
the  streams,  the  granite  hills  which  had  unconsciously 
entered  into  the  fibre  and  stamina  of  his  life,  rush  to 
his  assistance,  and  force  his  city  opponent  to  the  wall. 
No,  these  grand  schoolmasters  of  his  youth  have  not 
taught  their  lessons  in  vain,  but  they  have  become  a  part 
of  his  very  life.  "  At  the  call  of  a  noble  sentiment,  again 
the  woods  wave,  the  pines  murmur,  the  river  rolls  and 
shines,  and  the  cattle  low  upon  the  mountain,  putting 
the  spells  of  persuasion,  the  keys  of  power,  into  man's 
hand.  Bend  to  the  persuasion  which  is  flowing  to  you 
from  every  object  in  nature,  to  be  tongue  to  the 
heart  of  man,  and  to  show  the  besotted  world  how  pass- 
ing fair  is  wisdom."  The  best  part  of  our  education 
comes  from  Nature,  and  she  makes  us  pay  a  heavy  price 
for  shutting  ourselves  up  in  the  city  where  we  cannot 
breathe  her  sweet  breath,  nor  learn  lessons  from  her 
birds  and  streams  and  flowers,  her  mountains,  her  val- 
leys and  forests,  her  meadows  and  hills.  She  keeps  the 
great  school  of  the  world ;  she  is  the  developer  of  man- 
kind, the  unfolder  of  life,  the  invigorator  of  the  race. 
She  holds  the  balm  for  all  our  ills,  and  he  who  shuts 
himself  out  from  her  influences-  must  pay  the  penalty. 
He  must  forever  be  dwarfed  in  some  part  of  his  man- 
hood, his  horizon  limited,  his  education  incomplete. 
The  muscle  and  sinew,  the  nerve,  the  stamina,  the  stay- 
ing powers,  the  courage,  the  fortitude,  the  grit,  the  grip 
and  pluck  of  the  world,  have  ever  come  mostly  from  tlie 
country.  The  tendency  of  city  life  is  to  deteriorate  the 
physical  and  the  moral  man.    There  is  more  refinement, 


424  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

but  less  vigor ;  more  culture,  but  less  stamina ;  more 
grace, but  less  liardihood;  more  sentiment,  but  less  sense; 
more  books,  but  less  knowledge ;  more  learning,  but  less 
wisdom;  more  information,  but  less  practical  ability; 
more  of  the  ethereal,  but  less  of  the  substantial ;  more 
gristle,  but  less  backbone  ;  more  newspaper  reading,  but 
poorer  memories  ;  more  society,  but  less  sincerity. 

^'  What  a  grand  sight !  how  soul  -  inspiring  and 
thought-producing  ! "  exclaimed  John  Marshall,  as  he 
gazed  on  the  mountains  of  Virginia.  ''No  wonder 
Patrick  Henry  was  an  orator,  no  wonder  he  was  elo- 
quent ;  how  could  he  have  been  otherwise,  reared  amid 
such  sublime  scenes  as  these  ! " 

"I  could  not  help  thinking,"  said  Stephen  Allen  in 
his  reminiscences  of  Daniel  Webster,  "  as  I  stood  with 
some  of  his  neighbors  and  kinsmen  upon  the  spot  where 
Webster  first  saw  the  light  of  day,  that  those  wild  bleak 
hills  amongst  which  he  was  cradled,  and  those  rough 
pastures  in  which  he  grew,  had  left  their  impress  upon 
his  soul." 

The  geography  and  history  of  the  United  States  are 
mapped  and  stamped  upon  the  Congress  at  Washington. 
If  we  had  power  to  analyze  a  senator,  we  could  repro- 
duce the  mountains,  valleys,  lakes,  meadows,  and  ocean 
scenery  of  his  native  town  from  the  effect  they  have 
had  in  modifying  and  shaping  his  life.  The  story  of 
his  State,  its  legends  and  poetry  are  all  interwoven  in 
the  tissue  of  his  mind.  Their  influence  is  seen  in  every 
fibre  of  his  being.  You  can  distinguish  the  man  of  the 
old  Granite  State  from  the  blithe  representatives  of  the 
sunny  south.  You  can  trace  the  rugged  climate  and 
granite  in  a  Webster,  the  sunshine  in  a  Calhoun  or  a 
Clay. 

The  universe  is  one  great  kindergarten  for  man. 
Everything  that  exists  has  brought  with  it  its  own 
peculiar  lesson.  The  mountain  teaches  stability  and 
grandeur ;  the  ocean  immensity  and  change.     Forests, 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS.     425 

lakes,  and  rivers,  clouds  and  winds,  stars  and  flowers, 
stupendous  glaciers  and  crystal  snowflakes,  —  every  form 
of  animate  or  inanimate  existence,  leaves  its  impress 
upon  the  soul  of  man.  Even  the  bee  and  the  ant  have 
brought  their  little  lessons  of  industry  and  economy. 

"  You  curse  and  swear  at  such  an  ungodly  rate  that 
I  tremble  to  hear  you  ! "  exclaimed  an  old  crone  noted 
for  vulgarity  and  cursing.  *'  You  are  the  ungodliest 
person  for  swearing  I  ever  heard  in  my  whole  life  !  " 
The  sinner  stands  thunderstruck  at  such  a  reproof  from 
such  a  source,  but  his  voice  is  soon  heard  preaching 
Christ.  Bigots  hunt  him  from  pulpit  to  prison,  where 
he  is  kept  twelve  years  for  daring  to  preach  the  gospel. 
But  from  that  dungeon,  cold  and  dim,  John  Bunyan, 
the  converted  tinker,  sends  forth  the  "  Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress,'' the  allegory  of  the  ages. 

"  I  am  indebted  to  my  father  for  living,"  said  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  "  but  to  my  teacher  for  living  well." 

A  man  who  heard  Lincoln  speak  in  Norwich,  Conn., 
some  time  before  he  was  nominated  for  the  presidency 
was  greatly  impressed  by  the  closely  knit  .logic  of  the 
speech.  Meeting  him  next  day  on  a  train,  he  asked 
him  how  he  acquired  his  wonderful  logical  powers  and 
such  acuteness  in  analysis.  Lincoln  replied :  "  It  was 
my  terrible  discouragement  which  did  that  for  me. 
When  I  was  a  young  man  I  went  into  an  office  to 
study  law.  I  saw  that  a  lawyer's  business  is  largely  to 
prove  things.  I  said  to  myself,  '  Lincoln,  when  is  a 
thing  proved  ?  '  That  was  a  poser.  What  constitutes 
proof  ?  Not  evidence  ;  that  was  -not  the  point.  There 
may  be  evidence  enough,  but  wherein  consists  the 
proof  ?  You  remember  the  old  story  of  the  German 
who  was  tried  for  some  crime,  and  they  brought  half  a 
dozen  respectable  men  who  swore  they  saw  the  prisoner 
commit  the  deed.  '  Veil,'  he  replied,  '  vat  of  dat  ?  Six 
men  schwears  dot  dey  saw  me  do  it.  I  prings  more  nor 
two  tozen  goot  men  who  schwears  dey  did  not  see  me 


426  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

do  it.'  So,  wherein  is  the  proof?  I  groaned  over  the 
question,  and  finally  said  to  myself,  '  Ah !  Lincoln,  you 
can't  tell.'  Then  I  thought,  '  What  use  is  it  for  me  to 
be  in  a  law  office  if  I  can't  tell  when  a  thing  is  proved? ' 
So  I  gave  it  up,  and  went  back  home,  over  in  Ken- 
tucky. 

"  Soon  after  I  returned  to  the  old  log  cabin  I  fell  in 
with  a  copy  of  Euclid.  I  had  not  the  slightest  notion 
what  Euclid  was,  and  I  thought  I  would  find  out.  I 
found  out ;  but  it  was  no  easy  job.  I  looked  into  the 
book  and  found  it  was  all  about  lines,  angles,  surfaces, 
and  solids ;  but  I  could  not  understand  it  at  all.  I 
therefore  began,  at  the  beginning,  and  before  spring  I 
had  gone  through  that  old  Euclid's  geometry,  and  could 
demonstrate  every  proposition  like  a  book.  Then  in 
the  spring,  when  I  had  got  through  with  it,  I  said  to 
myself  one  day,  ^  Ah,  do  you  know  now  when  a  thing  is 
proved  ?  '  And  I  answered,  '  Yes,  sir,  I  do.'  '  Then 
you  may  go  back  to  the  law  shop,'  and  I  went." 

No  individual  can  develop  into  the  largest  manhood 
or  womanhood  alone.  Society  is  to  the  individual  what 
the  sun  and  showers  are  to  the  seed.  It  develops  him, 
expands  him,  unfolds  him,  calls  him  out  of  himself. 
Other  men  are  his  opportunity.  Each  one  is  a  match 
which  ignites  some  new  tinder  in  him  unignitible  by 
any  previous  match.  Without  these  the  sparks  of  indi- 
viduality would  sleep  in  him  forever. 

The  moment  man  cuts  himself  off  from  living  connec- 
tion with  the  human  race  and  its  needs,  he  begins  to  die 
from  poor  circulation.  He  may  barely  live,  but  he  is 
ever  after  a  cold-blooded  animal,  with  low  vitality. 
Such  lives  become  marbleized  and  unsympathetic.  We 
long  ago  had  to  give  up  solitary  confinement  continued 
any  length  of  time  in  our  prisons,  as  it  led  to  insanity, 
imbecility,  and  death. 

Eeal  power  is  not  found  alone  in  the  study,  the  libi^ary, 
or  the  lecture  hall,  but  in  the  field,  in  the  forest,  in  the 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS.     427 

market,  in  the  store,  on  the  busy  street,  in  actual  con- 
tact with  men  and  things. 

The  world  is  self-taught  in  a  thousand  cases  where  it 
is  college  bred  in  one. 

An  ambition  to  get  on  in  the  world,  the  steady  strug- 
gle to  get  up,  to  reach  higher,  is  a  constant  source  of 
education  in  foresight,  in  prudence,  in  economy,  indus- 
try, courage ;  in  fact,  is  the  great  developer  of  many  of 
the  strongest  and  noblest  qualities  of  character.  Were 
it  not  for  this  struggle  to  get  on,  living  would  be  in- 
tolerable in  any  community.  No  one  can  imagine  the 
direful  effect  of  its  absence.  It  would  be  like  the  loss  of 
gravitation  in  the  physical  world.  Everything  would  go 
to  destruction.  Indolence,  shiftlessness,  would  run  riot 
everywhere.  There  would  be  no  enterprise,  no  progress. 
The  world  would  rush  back  to  barbarism.  This  struggle 
educates  the  whole  community  in  a  thousand  ways. 

"  Were  the  question  asked,"  says  Stearns,  "  what  is 
at  this  moment  the  strongest  power  in  operation  for 
controlling,  regulating,  and  inciting  the  actions  of  men, 
what  has  most  at  its  disposal  the  condition  and  desti- 
nies of  the  world,  we  must  answer  at  once,  it  is  business, 
in  its  various  ranks  and  departments ;  of  which  com- 
merce, foreign  and  domestic,  is  the  most  appropriate 
representation.  In  all  prosperous  and  advancing  com- 
munities —  advancing  in  arts,  knowledge,  literature,  and 
social  refinement  —  business  is  king.  Other  influences 
in  society  may  be  equally  indispensable,  and  some  may 
think  far  more  dignified,  but  Business  is  King.  The 
statesman  and  the  scholar,  the  nobleman  and  the  prince, 
equally  with  the  manufacturer,  the  mechanic,  and  the 
laborer,  pursue  their  several  objects  only  by  leave 
granted,  and  means  furnished,  by  this  potentate." 

What  an  education  there  is  in  the  honest  pursuit  of 
wealth !  The  discipline  of  labor,  frugality,  self-denial, 
and  self-control  which  money-making  gives  are  worth 
a  thousand  times  more  than  money.     One  is  constantly 


428  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

compelled  to  bring  out  the  highest  and  best  in  him  in 
his  very  effort  to  obtain  that  which  he  would  possess. 
It  is  the  never-ending  demand  for  adjustment  to  sur- 
rounding circumstances ;  it  is  the  constant  drill  in  the 
round  of  petty  details ;  it  is  the  perpetual  call  upon  our 
readiness  of  intellect ;  it  is  the  unceasing  necessity  for 
quick  decision  and  prompt  action,  which  develops  the 
man. 

Defeats  and  failures  are  great  developers  of  charac- 
ter. They  have  made  the  giants  of  our  race  by  giving 
Titanic  muscles,  brawny  sinews,  and  far-reaching  intel- 
lects. "  I  was  not  rocked  and  dandled  into  a  legislator,'^ 
said  Burke ;  "  '  nitoi'  in  adversum '  is  the  motto  for  a 
man  like  me." 

Poverty  often  hides  her  charms  under  an  ugly  mask ; 
yet  thousands  have  been  forced  into  greatness  by  their 
very  struggle  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  She  is 
often  the  only  agent  Nature  can  employ  to  call  man  out 
of  himself.  Nature  cares  little  for  his  ease  and  pleas- 
ure ;  it  is  the  man  she  is  after,  and  she  will  pay  any 
price  or  resort  to  any  expedient  to  allure  him.  She 
masks  her  own  disciplinary  ends  in  man's  wants.  She 
coaxes  and  leads  him  ever  onward,  by  discovering  new 
wants  ;  and  the  struggle  to  gratify  these  wants  develops 
the  very  character  she  desires. 

Much  maligned  want  is  one  of  the  greatest  school- 
masters of  our  race.  It  has  educated  men  from  ob- 
scurity, and  led  them  up  through  the  wilderness  of 
difficulty  into  the  land  of  promise.  What  brave  souls 
has  it  revealed,  what  unselfish  devotion  begotten !  It 
found  Poussin  painting  signboards  on  the  road  to 
Paris,  and  made  him  one  of  the  greatest  of  artists.  It 
found  Chantry,  the  sculptor,  driving  a  donkey  with 
milk  cans  on  its  back  to  supply  his  mother's  custom- 
ers, and  made  him  one  of  the  greatest  sculptors  of 
the  century.  It  sent  Kichard  Foley  fiddling  and  split- 
ting nails  on  his  way  to  Sweden  to  learn  the  Swedish 


OUR  SCHOOLS  AND  SCHOOLMASTERS.     429 

way  of  nail-splitting.  It  found  a  Homer  wandering  on 
the  shores  of  Greece,  and  made  him  sing  the  Iliad  of 
all  time.  It  saw  a  boy  Shakespeare  holding  horses  at 
the  theatre  door,  and  wrung  from  him  the  immortal 
"Hamlet."  Over  what  a  university  greater  than  all 
others  has  it  grandly  presided.  What  statesmen,  what 
philosophers,  what  scholars,  what  authors,  what  philan- 
thropists, what  merchants,  have  been  graduated  from 
its  halls,  proud  to  call  it  Alma  Mater ! 

Men  are  naturally  lazy,  and  require  some  great  stim- 
ulus to  goad  their  flagging  ambitions  and  enable  them 
to  overcome  the  inertia  which  comes  from  ease  and  the 
consciousness  of  inherited  wealth.  Whatever  lessens 
in  a  young  man  the  feeling  that  he  must  make  his  way 
in  the  world  cripples  his  chance  of  success.  Poverty 
has  ever  been  the  priceless  spur  that  has  goaded  man 
up  to  his  own  loaf. 

Misfortune  has  forced  into  prominence  many  a  man 
otherwise  unknown.  "When  God  would  educate  a 
man,  He  compels  him  to  learn  bitter  lessons.  He  sends 
him  to  school  to  the  necessities  rather  than  to  the 
graces,  that,  by  knowing  all  suffering,  he  may  know 
also  the  eternal  consolation." 

No  education  is  adequate  to  the  needs  of  life  which 
does  not  produce  decision  of  character,  courage,  self- 
control,  and  perseverance. 

"  The  fruit  of  liberal  education,"  says  C.  W.  Eliot, 
"  is  not  learning,  but  the  capacity  and  desire  to  learn  ; 
not  knowledge,  but  power." 

To  live  in  America,  Emerson's  "  land  of  opportunity," 
is  an  inspiration,  —  an  education  in  itself.  How  can 
any  man  be  idle  in  a  land  whose  very  climate  is  a  tonic 
stimulating  to  effort,  whose  countless  noble  examples 
beckon  us  onward,  and  whose  untold  resources  invite 
to  the  display  of  energy  in  every  direction  ? 


CHAPTEE  XXV. 

BOOKS. 

Take  fast  hold  of  instruction;  let  her  not  go;  keep  her,  for  she  is  thy 
life.  —  Solomon. 

Books  are  a  guide  in  youth  and  an  entertainment  for  age.  They  sup- 
port us  under  solitude,  and  keep  us  from  being  a  burden  to  ourselves.  — 
Jeremy  Colliek. 

The  only  true  equalizers  in  the  world  are  books;  the  onh'  treasure-house 
open  to  all  comers  is  a  libi*ary.  —  Dr.  Langford. 

If  the  crowns  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  empire  were  laid  down  at  my 
feet  in  exchange  for  my  books  and  m}^  love  of  reading,  I  would  spurn  them 
all.  —  Fenelon. 

My  earh-^  and  invincible  love  of  reading,  I  would  not  exchange  for  the 
treasures  of  India.  —  Gibbon. 

At  this  day,  as  much  company  as  I  have  kept,  and  as  much  as  I  love  it, 
I  love  reading  better.  —  Pope. 

When  I  consider  what  some  books  have  done  for  the  world,  and  what 
they  are  doing,  how  they  keep  up  our  hope,  awaken  new  courage  and  faith, 
soothe  pain,  give  an  ideal  life  to  those  whose  homes  are  hard  and  cold, 
bind  together  distant  ages  and  foreign  lands,  create  new  worlds  of  beauty, 
bring  down  truths  from  heaven,  —  I  give  eternal  blessings  for  this  gift. — 
James  Freeman  Clarke. 

Books  are  the  friends  of  the  friendless.  —  George  S.  Hillard. 

Who  of  us  can  tell 
What  he  had  been,  had  Cadmus  never  taught 
The  art  that  fixes  into  form  the  thought,  — 
Had  Plato  never  spoken  from  his  cell, 
Or  his  high  harp  blind  Homer  never  strung  ? 

BULWER. 

"  When  a  boy,"  said  Horace  Greeley,  "  I  would  go 
reading  to  the  woodpile  ;  reading  to  the  garden ;  read- 
ing to  the  neighbors.  My  father  was  poor  and  needed 
my  services  through  the  day,  but  it  was  a  mighty  strug- 
gle for  him  to  get  me  to  bed  at  night.  I  would  take  a 
pine  knot,  put  it  on  the  backlog,  pile  my  books  around 


GEORGE    ELIOT 
Happy  is  the  man  tliat  findeth  wisdom, 
And  the  man  tliat  getteth  understanding  : 

For  the  merchandise  of  it  is  better  than  the  merchandise  of  silver, 
And  tlie  gain  thereof,  tlian  fine  gold. 
She  is  more  precious  than  rubies  : 
And  all  the  things  thou  canst  desire 
Are  not  to  be  compared  unto  her." 


BOOKS.  431 

me,  and  lie  down  and  read  all  through  the  long  winter 
evenings ;  silent,  motionless,  and  dead  to  all  the  world 
around  me,  alive  only  to  the  world  to  which  I  was 
transported  by  my  book." 

How  many  a  boy  could  tell  a  similar  story  !  How 
many  a  man  in  prosperity  has  found  one  of  his  greatest 
pleasures  in  books  ;  and  to  how  many  more  have  they 
proved  a  solace  in  poverty  and  pain,  a  refuge  from  care, 
a  pleasant  substitute  for  gloomy  thoughts  ! 

Perhaps  no  other  thing  has  such  power  to  lift  the 
poor  out  of  his  j^overty,  the  wretched  out  of  his  misery, 
to  make  the  burden-bearer  forget  his  burden,  the  sick 
his  suffering,  the  sorrower  his  grief,  the  downtrodden 
his  degradation,  as  books.  They  are  friends  to  the 
lonely,  companions  to  the  deserted,  joy  to  the  joyless, 
hope  to  the  hopeless,  good  cheer  to  the  disheartened,  a 
helper  to  the  helpless.  They  bring  light  into  darkness, 
and  sunshine  into  shadow. 

We  may  be  poor,  socially  ostracized,  shut  out  from 
all  personal  association  with  the  great  and  the  good, 
and  yet  be  in  the  best  society  in  the  world,  in  books. 
We  may  live  in  palaces,  converse  with  princes,  be  fa- 
miliar with  royalty,  and  associate  with  the  greatest  and 
noblest  of  all  time. 

A  Hebrew  Bible  in  the  Vatican  weighs  three  hundred 
and  twenty-five  pounds,  and  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold. 
Were  it  the  only  correct  copy  of  the  Bible  in  Hebrew,  its 
value  would  be  much  greater.  If  it  were  the  only  cor- 
rect copy  in  any  language,  its  value  would  be  fabulous. 

To-day  the  art  of  the  printer  enables  you  to  buy  a 
correct  copy  of  the  Bible  for  fifty  cents  ;  but  if  you 
avail  yourself  freely  of  its  inexhaustible  treasures,  and 
measure  its  worth  by  its  influence  upon  your  life  and 
the  lives  of  those  around  you,  is  it  not  beyond  all  price  ? 
It  has  served  as  a  lamp  to  the  feet  and  a  light  to  the 
path  of  millions  of  wayfarers  in  the  journey  of  life,  and 
no  other  book  can  ever  take  its  place. 


432  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

The  modern  press  places  at  our  command  thousands 
of  other  good  books  at  merely  nominal  prices.  A  copy 
of  a  book  which  has  cost  the  author  and  publisher 
$5000  we  can  buy  for  a  dollar  or  two,  and  through  the 
modern  newspaper  we  can  get  the  services  of  an  army 
of  thinkers  and  workers  for  the  price  of  a  postage 
stamp.  Where  else  can  we  get  so  great  returns  for  the 
money  invested  ?  The  only  limit  to  the  dividends  we 
draw  is  found  in  the  thoroughness  and  thoughtfulness 
with  which  we  read. 

A  book  that  starts  a  young  person  in  a  life  career  is 
a  great  power.  The  inspiration  of  a  single  book  has 
made  preachers,  poets,  philosophers,  authors,  and  states- 
men. On  the  other  hand,  the  demoralization  of  a  single 
book  has  sometimes  made  infidels,  profligates,  and  crim- 
inals. Ossian's  poems  had  a  marked  effect  on  Napo- 
leon's life,  and  he  was  never  weary  of  sounding  the 
praises  of  Homer ;  but  his  reading  was  very  extensive, 
including  histories  of  all  times  and  all  countries,  mathe- 
matics, Virgil,  Tasso,  books  on  theology  and  legislation. 

Cotton  Mather's  "  Essay  to  do  Good  "  read  by  the  boy 
Franklin  influenced  his  whole  life.  He  advised  every- 
body to  read  with  a  pen  in  hand  and  to  make  notes  of 
all  they  read. 

Emerson's  book  on  nature  affected  Tjaidall's  whole 
career. 

Beecher  said  that  Kuskin's  works  taught  him  the 
secret  of  seeing,  and  that  no  man  could  ever  again  be 
quite  the  same  man  or  look  at  the  world  in  the  same  way 
after  reading  him.  Samuel  Drew  said,  "  Locke's  '■  Essay 
on  the  Understanding '  awakened  me  from  stupor,  and 
induced  me  to  form  a  resolution  to  abandon  the  grovel- 
ing views  I  had  been  accustomed  to  maintain."  An 
English  tanner,  whose  leather  gained  a  great  reputation, 
said  he  should  not  have  made  it  so  good  if  he  had  not 
read  Carlyle.  The  lives  of  Washington  and  Henry 
Clay,  which  Lincoln  borrowed  from  neighbors  in  the 


BOOKS.  433 

wilderness,  and  devoured  by  the  light  of  the  cabin  fire, 
inspired  his  life.  In  his  early  manhood  he  read  Paine's 
"  Age  of  Keason,"  and  Yolney's  "  Euins,"  which  so  in- 
fluenced his  mind  that  he  wrote  an  essay  to  prove  the 
unreliability  of  the  Bible.  These  two  books  nearly  un- 
balanced his  moral  character.  But,  fortunately,  the 
books  which  fell  into  his  hands  in  after  years  corrected 
this  evil  influence.  The  trend  of  many  a  life  for  good 
or  ill,  for  success  or  failure,  has  been  determined  by  a 
single  book.  The  books  which  we  read  early  in  life  are 
those  which  influence  us  most.  When  Garfleld  was 
working  for  a  neighbor  he  read  "  Sindbad  the  Sailor  " 
and  the  "  Pirate's  Own  Book.''  These  books  revealed 
a  new  world  to  him,  and  his  mother  with  difficulty  kept 
him  from  going  to  sea.  He  was  fascinated  with  the  sea 
life  which  these  books  pictured  to  his  young  imagina- 
tion. The  "  Voyages  of  Captain  Cook  "  led  William 
Carey  to  go  on  a  mission  to  the  heathen.  "  The  Imita- 
tion of  Christ  "  and  Taylor's  "  Holy  Living  and  Dying  " 
determined  the  character  of  John  Wesley.  "Shake- 
speare and  the  Bible,"  said  John  Sharp,  "made  me 
Archbishop  of  York."  The  "Vicar  of  Wakefield" 
awakened  the  poetical  genius  in  Goethe. 

In  the  parlor  window  of  the  old  mossy  vicarage 
where  Coleridge  spent  his  dreamy  childhood  lay  a 
well-thumbed  copy  of  that  volume  of  Oriental  fancy, 
the  "Arabian  Nights,"  and  he  has  told  us  with  what 
mingled  desire  and  apprehension  he  was  wont  to  look 
at  the  precious  book,  until  the  morning  sunshine  had 
touched  and  illuminated  it,  when,  seizing  it  hastily,  he 
would  carry  it  off  in  triumph  to  some  leafy  nook  in  the 
vicarage  garden,  and  plunge  delightedly  into  its  maze 
of  marvels  and  enchantments. 

How  many  poor  boys  and  girls  who  thought  they  had 
"  no  chance "  in  life  have  been  started  upon  noble 
careers  by  the  grand  books  of  Smiles,  Todd,  Mathews, 
Hunger,  Whipple,  Geikie,  Thayer,  and  others. 


434  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

The  greatest  advantage  of  books  does  not  always 
come  from  what  we  remember  of  them,  but  from  their 
suggestiveness.  A  good  book  often  serves  as  a  match 
to  light  the  dormant  powder  within  us.  There  is  explo- 
sive material  enough  in  most  of  us  if  we  can  only  reach 
it.  A  good  book  or  a  good  friend  often  serves  to  wake 
up  our  latent  possibilities.  Books  often  excite  thought 
in  great  writers,  even  upon  entirely  different  subjects. 
We  often  find  in  books  what  we  thought  and  felt,  could 
we  have  expressed  ourselves.  Indeed,  we  get  acquainted 
with  ourselves  in  books.  We  discover  one  feature  in 
Emerson,  another  lineament  in  Shakespeare,  an  expres- 
sion in  Homer,  a  glimpse  of  ourselves  in  Dante,  and  so 
on  until  we  spell  out  our  whole  individuality.  True,  we 
get  many  pleasing  reflections  of  ourselves  from  friends, 
many  mirrored  deformities  from  our  enemies,  and  a 
characteristic  here  and  there  from  the  world ;  but  in 
a  calm  and  unbiased  Avay  we  find  the  most  of  ourselves, 
our  strength,  our  weakness,  our  breadth,  our  limitations, 
our  opinions,  our  tastes,  our  harmonies  and  discords, 
our  jjoetic  and  prosaic  qualities,  in  books. 

Madame  Koland'  would  take  a  copy  of  Plutarch  to 
church,  and  read  a  sentence  at  every  pause  in  the  devo- 
tional exercises.  The  book  was  also  a  favorite  with 
Napoleon.  Plutarch  pictures  with  a  master^  hand  lit- 
tle peculiarities  in  his  heroes  unnoticed  by  other  writers. 
He  said  he  would  leave  descriptions  of  great  battles  to 
others,  and  confine  himself  to  scenes  indicating  the  souls 
of  men.  Shakespeare  copied  many  things  from  Plutarch, 
sometimes  repeating  his  language  word  for  word.  Cur- 
ran  used  to  read  Homer  through  once  a  year. 

The  sight  of  an  engraving  representing  Troy  in  flames, 
its  battlements  clearly  defined,  stimulated  Dr.  Schlie- 
mann  to  attempt  those  explorations  and  excavations 
which  have  resulted  in  such  wonderful  discoveries. 
Luther  was  encouraged  by  the  life  and  writings  of  John 
Huss.     Thousands  of  similar  examples  might  be  given. 


BOOKS.  435 

We  form  many  of  our  opinions  from  our  favorite 
books.  The  author  whom  we  prefer  is  our  most  potent 
teacher  ;  we  look  at  the  world  through  his  eyes.  If  we 
habitually  read  books  that  are  elevating  in  tone,  pure  in 
style,  sound  in  reasoning,  and  keen  in  insight,  our  minds 
develop  the  same  characteristics.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
we  read  weak  or  vicious  books,  our  minds  contract  the 
faults  and  vices  of  the  books.  We  cannot  escape  the 
influence  of  what  we  read  any  more  than  we  can  escape 
the  influence  of  the  air  that  we  breathe. 

Many  a  boy  has  gone  to  sea  and  become  "a  rover  for 
life  under  the  influence  of  Marry  at 's  novels.  Abbott's 
"  Life  of  Napoleon,"  read  at  the  age  of  seven  years, 
sent  one  boy  whom  I  knew  to  the  army  before  he  was 
fourteen.  Many  a  man  has  committed  crime  from  the 
leavening,  multiplying  influence  of  a  bad  book  read 
when  a  boy.  The  chaplain  of  Newgate  prison  in  Lon- 
don, in  one  of  his  annual  reports  to  the  Lord  Mayor, 
referring  to  many  fine-looking  lads  of  respectable  par- 
entage in  the  city  prison,  said  that  he  discovered  that 
"all  these  boys,  without  exception,  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  reading  those  cheap  periodicals  "  which  were 
published  for  the  alleged  amusement  of  youth  of  both 
sexes.  There  is  not  a  police  court  or  a  prison  in  this 
country  where  similar  cases  could  not  be  found.  One 
can  hardly  measure  the  moral  ruin  that  has  been  caused 
in  this  generation  by  the  influence  of  bad  books. 

It  is  said  that  Voltaire,  at  the  age  of  five  years,  read 
a  skeptical  poem,  the  impression  of  which  made  him  the 
arch-scoffer  of  his  century.  A  lad  once  showed  to  an- 
other a  book  full  of  words  and  pictures  of  impurity. 
He  only  had  it  in  his  hands  a  few  moments.  Later  in 
life  he  held  high  office  in  the  church,  and  years  after- 
ward told  a  friend  that  he  would  have  given  half  he 
possessed  had  he  never  seen  it,  for  its  impure  images  at 
the  most  holy  times  would  sometimes  rise  unbidden  in 
his  mind. 


436  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

James  T.  Fields  visited  Jesse  Pomeroy,  the  boy  mur- 
derer, in  jail.  Pomeroy  told  him  he  had  been  a  great 
reader  of  "  blood  and  thunder "  stories ;  that  he  had 
read  sixty  dime  novels  about  scalping  and  other  bloody 
performances  ;  and  he  thought  there  was  no  doubt  that 
these  books  had  put  the  horrible  thoughts  into  his  mind 
which  led  to  his  murderous  acts. 

If  I  find  a  young  man  devoted  to  the  "  Police  Gazette," 
and  similar  reading,  I  am  not  surprised  by  and  by  to 
learn  that  his  name  has  appeared  in  the  records  of  the 
criminal  court.  "  It  is  nearly  an  axiom,"  said  BishojD 
Potter,  "  that  people  will  not  be  better  than  the  books 
they  read." 

An  ofi&cer  of  the  British  government  declares  that 
nearly  all  of  the  boys  brought  before  the  criminal  courts 
owe  their  downfall  to  impure  reading. 

The  best  books  are  those  which  stir  us  up  most  and 
make  us  the  most  determined  to  do  something  and  be 
something  ourselves.  The  best  books  are  those  which 
lift  us  to  a  higher  plane  where  we  breathe  a  purer  at- 
mosphere. As  we  should  associate  with  people  who 
can  inspire  us  to  nobler  deeds,  so  we  should  only  read 
those  books  which  have  an  uplifting  power,  and  which 
stir  us  to  make  the  most  of  ourselves  and  our  opportu- 
nities. 

"When  I  went  into  the  street,  after  reading  that 
book,"  said  a  man  who  had  been  perusing  Homer,  "  men 
seemed  to  be  ten  feet  high." 

**  Read  Homer  once,  and  you  can  read  no  more, 
For  all  books  else  appear  so  mean,  so  poor ; 
Verse  may  seem  prose ;  but  still  persist  to  read, 
And  Homer  will  be  all  the  books  you  need." 

"  If  we  consider  merely  the  subtilty  of  disquisition," 
says  Macaulay,  "  the  force  of  imagination,  the  perfect 
energy  and  elegance  of  expression  which  characterize 
the  great  works  of  Athenian  genius,  we  must  pronounce 
them  intrinsically  most  valuable  ;  but  what  shall  we  say 


BOOKS.  437 

when  we  reflect  that  from  hence  have  sprung,  directly 
or  indirectly,  all  the  noblest  creations  of  the  human 
intellect ;  that  from  hence  were  the  vast  accomplish- 
ments and  the  brilliant  fancy  of  Cicero,  the  withering 
fire  of  Juvenal,  the  plastic  imagination  of  Dante,  the 
humor  of  Cervantes,  the  comprehension  of  Bacon,  the 
wit  of  Butler,  the  supreme  and  universal  excellence  of 
Shakespeare  ?  All  the  triumphs  of  truth  and  genius 
over  prejudice  and  power,  in  every  country  and  in  every 
age,  have  been  the  triumphs  of  Athens.  Wherever  a 
few  great  minds  have  made  a  stand  against  violence 
and  fraud,  in  the  cause  of  liberty  and  reason,  there  has 
been  her  spirit  in  the  midst  of  them,  inspiring,  encour- 
aging, consoling ;  by  the  lonely  lamp  of  Erasmus,  by 
the  restless  bed  of  Pascal,  in  the  tribune  of  Mirabeau, 
in  the  cell  of  Galileo,  on  the  scaffold  of  Sidney.  But 
who  shall  estimate  her  influence  on  private  happiness  ? 
Who  shall  say  how  many  thousands  have  been  made 
wiser,  happier,  and  better  by  those  pursuits  in  which 
she  has  taught  mankind  to  engage  ;  to  how  many  the 
studies  which  took  their  rise  from  her  have  been  wealth 
in  poverty,  liberty  in  bondage,  health  in  sickness,  society 
in  solitude  ?  Her  power  is,  indeed,  manifested  at  the 
bar,  in  the  senate,  in  the  field  of  battle,  in  the  schools 
of  philosophy.  But  these  are  not  her  glory.  Wherever 
literature  consoles  sorrow  or  assuages  pain,  wherever  it 
brings  gladness  to  eyes  which  fail  with  wakefulness  and 
tears,  and  ache  for  the  dark  house  and  the  long  sleep, 
there  is  exhibited,  in  the  noblest  form,  the  immortal 
influence  of  Athens. 

"  The  dervise  in  the  Arabian  tale  did  not  hesitate  to 
abandon  to  his  comrade  the  camels  with  their  loads  of 
jewels  and  gold,  while  he  retained  the  casket  of  that 
mysterious  juice  which  enabled  him  to  behold  at  one 
glance  all  the  hidden  riches  of  the  universe.  Surely  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  no  external  advantage  is 
to  be  compared  with  that  purification  of  the  intellectual 


438  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

eye  Avhich  gives  iis  to  contemplate  the  infinite  wealth  of 
the  mental  world,  all  the  hoarded  treasures  of  the  pri- 
meval dynasties,  all  the  shapeless  ore  of  its  yet  unex- 
plored mines.  This  is  the  gift  of  Athens  to  man.  Her 
freedom  and  her  power  have,  for  more  than  twenty  cen- 
turies, been  annihilated,  her  people  have  degenerated 
into  timid  slaves,  her  language  into  a  barbarous  jargon, 
her  temples  have  been  given  up  to  the  successive  depre- 
dations of  Eomans,  Turks,  and  Scotchmen ;  but  her  in- 
tellectual empire  is  imperishable.  And  when  those  who 
have  rivaled  her  greatness  shall  have  shared  her  fate, 
when  civilization  and  knowledge  shall  have  fixed  their 
abode  in  distant  continents  ;  when  the  sceptre  shall  have 
passed  away  from  England ;  when,  perhaps,  travelers 
from  distant  regions  shall  in  vain  labor  to  decipher  on 
some  mouldering  pedestal  the  name  of  our  proudest, 
chief,  shall  hear  savage  hymns  chanted  to  some  mis- 
shapen idol  over  the  ruined  dome  of  our  proudest  tem- 
ple, and  shall  see  a  single  naked  fisherman  wash  his 
nets  in  the  river  of  the  ten  thousand  masts,  her  influ- 
ence and  her  glory  will  still  survive,  fresh  in  eternal 
youth,  exempt  from  mutability  and  decay,  immortal  as 
the  intellectual  principle  from  which  they  derive  their 
origin,  and  over  which  they  exercise  their  control." 

"At  this  hour,  five  hundred  years  since  their  crea- 
tion," says  De  Quincey,  "the  tales  of  Chaucer,  never 
equaled  on  this  earth  for  their  tenderness  and  for  life 
of  picturesqueness,  are  read  familiarly  by  many  in  the 
charming  language  of  their  natal  day,  and  by  others  in 
the  modernization  of  Dry  den,  of  Pope,  and  Wordsworth. 
At  this  hour,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  years  since 
their  creation,  the  pagan  tales  of  Ovid,  never  equaled 
on  this  earth  for  the  gayety  of  their  movement  and 
the  capricious  graces  of  their  narrative,  are  read  by  all 
Christendom." 

"You  get  into  society,  in  the  widest  sense,"  says 
Geikie,  "  in  a  great  library,  with  the  huge  advantage  of 


BOOKS.  439 

needing  no  introductions,  and  not  dreading  repulses. 
From  that  great  crowd  you  can  choose  what  companions 
you  please,  for  in  the  silent  levees  of  the  immortals 
there  is  no  pride,  but  the  highest  is  at  the  service  of  the 
lowest,  with  a  grand  humility.  You  may  speak  freely 
with  any,  without  a  thought  of  your  inferiority;  for 
books  are  perfectly  well  bred,  and  hurt  no  one's  feelings 
by  any  discriminations."  Sir  William  Waller  observed, 
"In  my  study,  I  am  sure  to  converse  with  none  but 
wise  men,  but  abroad  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  avoid 
the  society  of  fools."  "  It  is  the  glorious  prerogative  of 
the  empire  of  knowledge,"  says  Webster,  "  that  what  it 
gains  it  never  loses.  On  the  contrary,  it  increases  by 
the  multiple  of  its  own  power,  all  its  ends  become 
means  ;  all  its  attainments  help  to  new  conquests." 

Did  Homer  and  Plato  and  Socrates  and  Virgil  ever 
dream  that  their  words  would  echo  through  the  ages, 
and  aid  in  shaping  men's  lives  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury ?  They  were  mere  infants  when  on  earth  in  com- 
parison with  the  influence  and  power  they  now  wield. 
Every  life  on  the  American  continent  has  in  some  de- 
gree been  influenced  by  them.  Christ,  when  on  earth, 
never  exerted  one  millionth  part  of  the  influence  he 
wields  to-day.  While  he  reigns  supreme  in  many  hu- 
man hearts,  he  touches  all  lives  more  or  less,  the  atheist 
as  well  as  the  saint.  On  the  other  hand,  who  shall  say 
how  many  crimes  were  committed  the  past  year  by 
wicked  men  buried  long  ago  ?  Their  books,  their  pic- 
tures, their  bad  examples,  live  in  all  they  reach,  and  in- 
cite to  evil  deeds. 

Emerson  had  three  rules  for  reading:  never  read  a 
book  that  is  not  a  year  old ;  never  read  any  but  famous 
books  ;  never  read  a  book  you  do  not  like.  He  ranked 
Plutarch's  "  Lives  "  next  to  the  Bible  for  its  beneficial 
influence  upon  the  minds  of  men. 

"  Heed  not  the  idle  assertion  that  literary  pursuits 
will  disqualify  you  for  the  active  business  of  life,"  says 


440  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

Alexander  H.  Everett.  "  Reject  it  as  a  mere  iinagina- 
tiorij  inconsistent  with  principle,  unsupported  by  expe- 
rience. Point  out  to  those  who  make  it  the  illustrious 
characters  who  have  reaped  in  every  age  the  highest 
honors  of  studious  and  active  exertion.  Show  them 
Demosthenes  forging,  by  the  light  of  the  midnight 
lamp,  those  thunderbolts  of  eloquence  which 

'Shook  the  arsenal,  fulmined  over  Greece, 
To  Macedon  aud  Artaxerxes'  throne.' 

"Ask  them  if  Cicero  would  have  been  hailed  with 
rapture  as  the  father  of  his  country  if  he  had  not  been 
its  pride  and  pattern  in  philosophy  and  letters.  Inquire 
whether  Caesar,  or  Frederick,  or  Bonaparte,  or  Welling- 
ton, or  Washington,  fought  the  worse  because  they 
knew  how  to  write  their  own  commentaries.  Eemind 
them  of  Franklin,  tearing  at  the  same  time  the  light- 
ning from  heaven  and  the  sceptre  from  the  hand  of 
the  oppressor.  Do  they  say  to  you  that  study  will 
lead  you  to  skepticism  ?  Recall  to  their  memories  the 
venerable  names  of  Bacon,  Milton,  Newton,  and  Locke. 
Would  they  persuade  you  that  devotion  to  learning 
will  withdraw  your  steps  from  the  paths  of  pleas- 
ure ?  Tell  them  that  the  only  true  pleasures  are  those 
which  result  from  the  diligent  exercise  of  all  the  facul- 
ties of  body  and  mind  and  heart,  the  pursuit  of  noble 
ends  by  noble  means.  Repeat  to  them  the  ancient  ap- 
ologue of  the  youthful  Hercules,  in  the  pride  of  strength 
and  beauty,  giving  up  his  generous  soul  to  the  worship 
of  virtue.  Tell  them  your  choice  is  also  made.  Tell 
them,  with  the  illustrious  Roman  orator,  you  would 
rather  be  in  the  wrong  with  Plato  than  in  the  right 
with  Epicurus." 

You  should  bring  your  mind  to  the  reading  of  a 
book,  or  to  the  study  of  any  subject,  as  you  take  an  axe 
to  the  grindstone ;  not  for  what  you  get  from  the  stone, 
but  for  the  sharpening  of  the  axe.  While  it  is  true 
that  the  facts  learned  from  books  are  worth  more  than 


HENRY   WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW 
"  Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  sublime." 
Read  great  books  that  come  from  great  thinkers  ;  formative  books,  inspiring, 
soul-lifting  books  ;  and  remember  that  it  is  the  books  read  before  middle  life  that 
most  mould  character  and  influence  destiny. 


BOOKS.  441 

the  dust  from  the  stone,  even  in  much  greater  ratio  is 
the  mind  more  valuable  than  the  axe.  Bacon  says  : 
"  Some  books  are  to  be  tasted,  others  to  be  swallowed, 
and  some  few  to  be  chewed  and  digested ;  that  is,  some 
books  are  to  be  read  only  in  parts  ;  others  to  be  read, 
but  not  curiously ;  and  some  few  to  be  read  wholly, 
and  with  diligence  and  attention.  Eeading  maketh  a 
full  man,  conference  a  ready  man,  and  writing  an  exact 
man ;  and,  therefore,  if  a  man  write  little,  he  had  need 
have  a  great  memory ;  if  he  confer  little,  he  had  need 
have  a  present  wit ;  and  if  he  read  little,  he  had 
need  have  much  cunning,  to  seem  to  know  that  he  doth 
not.  Histories  make  men  wise ;  poets  witty ;  the 
mathematics  subtle  ;  natural  philosophy  deep  ;  morals 
grave  ;  logic  and  rhetoric,  able  to  contend." 

"No  wonder  Cicero  said  that  he  would  part  with  all 
he  was  worth  so  he  might  live  and  die  among  his 
books,"  says  Geikie.  "  No  wonder  Petrarch  was 
among  them  to  the  last,  and  was  found  dead  in  their 
company.  It  seems  natural  that  Bede  should  have 
died  dictating,  and  that  Leibnitz  should  have  died  with 
a  book  in  his  hand,  and  Lord  Clarendon  at  his  desk. 
Buckle's  last  words,  ^  My  poor  book  ! '  tell  a  passion 
that  forgot  death ;  and  it  seemed  only  a  fitting  fare- 
well when  the  tear  stole  down  the  manly  cheeks  of 
Scott  as  they  wheeled  him  into  his  library,  when  he 
had  come  back  to  Abbotsford  to  die.  Southey,  white- 
haired,  a  living  shadow,  sitting  stroking  and  kissing  the 
books  he  could  no  longer  open  or  read,  is  altogether 
pathetic." 

What  wealth  lies  in  books,  and  how  easily  may  the 
poorest  boy  and  girl  become  rich  in  information,  learn- 
ing, and  wisdom,  through  a  few  pennies'  worth  of  books. 
Through  books,  the  poorest  boy  can  revel  in  the  wealth 
of  the  intellect  with  Plato  and  Socrates  ;  the  ragged 
bootblack  can  act  in  the  tragedy  of  "Hamlet"  with 
Shakespeare.     The  common  day  laborer  may  discourse 


442  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

with  Plato  of  reason  amid  the  groves  of  the  Grecian  acad- 
emy. The  digger  in  the  ditch  may  follow  Caesar  in  his 
campaigns,  or  Alexander  in  his  conquest  of  the  world. 
The  poorest  mechanic  may  explore  the  wilds  of  Africa 
with  Livingstone  and  Stanley  ;  he  may  follow  Napoleon 
over  the  battlefields  of  Europe.  The  humblest  boy 
may  penetrate  the  expanse  of  the  heavens  with  Galileo, 
Herschel,  and  Proctor,  or  with  Hugh  Miller  may  read 
the  stories  of  the  ages  imprinted  in  the  rocks,  or  with 
Thompson  and  Edison  may  investigate  the  mysteries 
of  science. 

Milton  will  cross  the  humblest  threshold  and  sing  to 
rags  the  story  of  Paradise.  Shakespeare  will  enter  the 
meanest  hovel  and  reproduce  his  immortal  "  Hamlet.'^ 
It  seems  like  a  miracle  that  the  poorest  boy  can  converse 
freely  with  the  greatest  philosophers  and  scientists, 
statesmen,  warriors,  authors  of  all  time  with  little  ex- 
pense, that  the  inmates  of  the  humblest  cabin  may  fol- 
low the  stories  of  the  nations,  the  epochs  of  history, 
the  story  of  libert}'",  the  romance  of  the  world,  the 
course  of  human  progress,  from  the  Hottentots  to  the 
Websters,  the  Lincolns,  and  Grants. 

Libraries  are  no  longer  a  luxury,  but  a  necessity.  A 
home  without  books  and  periodicals  and  newspapers  is 
like  a  house  without  windows.  Children  learn  to  read 
by  being  in  the  midst  of  books  ;  they  unconsciously  ab- 
sorb knowledge  by  handling  them.  No  family  can  now 
afford  to  be  without  good  reading. 

Furnish  your  house  with  books  rather  than  unneces- 
sary furniture,  bric-a-brac,  or  even  pictures  if  you  can- 
not afford  all.  One  of  the  most  incongruous  sights  in 
the  world  is  an  elegant  house  with  costly  furniture, 
paintings  of  the  masters,  imported  tapestries,  statu- 
ary, costly  carpets,  extravagant  frescoes,  and  yet  with 
scarcely  a  standard  work  in  the  library.  Indeed,  in 
many  of  the  most  elegant  houses  it  would  not  be  safe 
to  ask  for  the  commonest  English  classic. 


BOOKS.  443 

Wear  threadbare  clothes  and  patched  shoes  if  neces- 
sary, but  do  not  pinch  or  economize  on  books.  If  you 
cannot  give  your  children  an  academic  education  you  can 
place  within  their  reach  a  few  good  books  which  will 
lift  them  above  their  surroundings,  into  respectability 
and  honor.  A  college  education,  or  its  equivalent, 
and  more  is  possible  to  the  poorest  boy  or  girl  who  has 
access  to  the  necessary  books. 

A  library  of  standard  books  in  every  private  house  in 
America  would  revolutionize  our  entire  civilization. 

"  There  is  no  Past  so  long  as  Books  shall  live,"  says 
Lytton. 

All  that  man  has  ever  thought,  felt,  experienced,  or 
done  lives  in  books.  Nations  rise  and  fall,  great  cities 
are  buried  in  ruins,  vast  empires  obliterated,  but  the 
whole  past  lives  in  books.  All  that  is  left  of  the  once 
mighty  Greece  lives  in  books  alone.  Her  armies  are 
gone,  her  architecture  crumbled,  and  only  a  few  pieces 
of  her  sculpture  remain  ;  but  her  books  will  live  forever, 
and  influence  men  of  all  time. 

"No  entertainment  is  so  cheap  as  reading,"  says 
Mary  Wortley  Montagu ;  "  nor  any  pleasure  so  lasting." 
Good  books  elevate  the  character,  purify  the  taste,  take 
the  attractiveness  out  of  loiv  j^leasures,  and  lift  us  upon  a 
higher  plane  of  thinking  and  living.  It  is  not  easy  to 
be  mean  directly  after  reading  a  noble  and  inspiring 
book.  The  conversation  of  a  man  who  reads  for  improve- 
ment or  pleasure  will  be  flavored  by  his  reading  ;  but  it 
will  not  be  about  his  reading. 

To  rummage  around  among  ^books,  reading  a  few 
pages  here  and  a  few  pages  there,  without  thought  or 
aim,  is  worse  than  wasting  time,  worse  than  the  igno- 
rance which  comes  from  reading  nothing,  for  we  are 
forming  desultory  habits,  which  are  fatal  to  continuity 
of  thought.  We  should  lay  out  a  definite  line  of  read- 
ing, and  try  to  master  some  one  department  of  learning. 
Every  youth,  however  limited  his  opportunities,  should 


444  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

have  an  ambition  to  be  known  for  some  one  thing ;  to 
be  master  in  some  particular  line.  Learning  is  not  ne- 
cessarily knowledge  any  more  than  knowledge  is  wis- 
dom. Wisdom  is  knowledge  which  has  become  a  part 
of  one's  being ;  it  is  the  result  of  close,  systematic 
thinking,  taken  into  the  very  tissue  of  the  mind  itself, 
as  the  iron  particles  in  the  blood  are  taken  up  and  become 
incorporated  in  its  very  life. 

As  a  rule,  the  books  which  will  do  you  most  good  are 
those  which  make  you  work  hardest  while  reading, 
which  stimulate  the  brain,  and  inspire  you  to  nobler 
purpose.  Passive  reading  is  even  worse,  if  possible, 
than  desultory  reading ;  the  mind  remains  inactive,  in  a 
sort  of  indolent  reverie ;  so  it  is  weakened  and  in  time 
rendered  incapable  of  that  reach  and  grasp  which  en- 
ables it  to  master  principles,  and  that  power  which  en- 
ables it  to  analyze  and  synthetize.  Passive  reading 
takes  the  spring  and  the  snap  out  of  the  mind,  until  the 
brain  becomes  languid,  lazy,  and  disinclined  to  grapple 
with  great  principles  and  hard  problems. 

Reading  and  thinking  are  the  gymnasia  of  the  mind. 
The  gymnast  does  not  carry  away  the  apparatus  from 
the  gymnasium,  but  the  strength  and  the  suppleness 
which  the  exercise  gives  him.  It  is  not  so  much  what 
we  carry  away  from  the  book  and  store  in  memory  that 
is  valuable,  as  the  strength  and  skill  we  develop  in  the 
book  we  read.  Passive  reading  no  more  develops  the 
mind  than  sitting  down  in  a  gymnasium  will  develop 
the  body.  The  mind  must  have  exercise,  vigorous, 
strong,  systematic,  continuous. 

One  great  difference  between  the  American  graduate 
and  the  graduates  from  the  English  universities  is  that 
the  latter  have  not  read  many  books  superficially,  but  a 
few  books  well.  The  American  graduate  too  often  has 
a  smattering  of  many  books,  but  has  not  become  master 
of  any.  The  same  thing  is  largely  true  of  readers  in 
general ;  they   want   to   know   a  little   of   everything. 


BOOKS.  445 

They  want  to  read  all  the  latest  publications,  good,  bad, 
and  indifferent,  if  they  are  only  new.  As  a  rule,  our 
people  want  light  reading,  "  something  to  read "  that 
will  take  up  the  attention  and  kill  time  on  the  railroad 
or  at  home.  Generally  English  people  read  more  sub- 
stantial books,  older  books,  books  which  have  established 
their  right  to  exist.  They  are  not  so  eager  for  "  recent 
publications." 

Whatever  you  read,  read  with  enthusiasm,  with  en- 
ergy, read  with  the  whole  mind,  if  you  would  increase 
your  mental  stature.  Learn  to  absorb  the  mental  and 
the  moral  life  of  a  book,  and  assimilate  it  into  your  life. 
He  is  the  best  reader  who  consumes  the  most  knowledge 
and  converts  it  into  character.  Mechanical  readers  re- 
member words,  the  husks  of  things,  but  digest  nothing. 
They  cram  their  brains  but  starve  their  minds.  If  you 
are  getting  the  most  out  of  a  book,  you  will  feel  a  ca- 
pacity for  doing  things  which  you  never  felt  before. 
As  few  actors  conceive  the  characters  they  play,  so  few 
readers  comprehend  and  ensoul  their  authors. 

Hasty  reading,  superficial  reading,  overtaxes  the  mem- 
ory until  it  loses  its  power  to  grasp  and  hold.  The 
mind  loses  its  focusing  power,  the  power  to  bring  to- 
gether and  to  compare,  its  power  of  close  attention  and 
continuity  of  thought,  without  which  no  great  intellec- 
tual work  can  ever  be  accomplished.  Elizabeth  Bar- 
rett Browning  says,  "  We  err  by  reading  too  much,  and 
out  of  proportion  to  what  we  think.  I  should  be 
wiser,  I  am  persuaded,  if  I  had  not  read  half  as  much  ; 
should  have  had  stronger  and  better  exercised  faculties, 
and  should  stand  higher  in  my  own  appreciation.  The 
ne  "plus  ultra  of  intellectual  indolence  is  this  reading  of 
books."  It  is  said  that  Miss  Martineau  read  only  a 
page  in  an  hour.  Edmund  Burke  always  so  read  a 
book  as  to  make  it  his  own,  —  a  possession  for  life. 

Joseph  Cook  advises  youth  to  always  make  notes  of 
their  reading.     Mr.  Cook  uses  the  margins  of  his  books 


446  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

for  his  notes,  and  marks  all  of  liis  own  books  very 
freely,  so  that  every  volume  in  his  library  becomes  a 
notebook.  He  advises  all  young  men  and  young  women 
to  keep  commonplace  books.  They  are  a  great  aid  to 
memory,  and  help  wonderfully  to  locate  or  find  for  fu- 
ture use  what  we  have  read.  The  habit  of  taking  notes 
of  lectures  and  sermons  is  excellent.  One  of  the  great- 
est aids  to  education  is  the  habit  of  writing  out  an 
analysis  or  skeleton  of  a  book  or  article  after  we  have 
read  it ;  also  of  a  sermon  or  a  lecture.  This  habit  has 
made  many  a  strong,  vigorous  thinker  and  writer.  In 
this  connection  we  cannot  too  strongly  recommend  the 
habit  of  saving  clippings  from  our  readings  wherever 
possible,  of  everything  which  would  be  likely  to  assist 
us  in  the  future.  These  scrapbooks,  indexed,  often  be- 
come of  untold  advantage,  especially  if  in  the  line  of 
our  work.  Much  of  what  we  call  genius  in  great  men 
comes  from  such  notebooks  and  scrapbooks.  It  is  a 
great  deal  of  work  after  you  read  a  book,  listen  to  a  ser- 
mon or  lecture,  to  write  out  an  analysis  or  skeleton  of 
it,  but  this  is  the  way  the  Pitts,  the  Disraelis,  the  Web- 
sters,  the  Lincolns,  and  the  Clays  are  made.  Good 
books  are  ^'  gardens  of  undimmed  beauty,  where  the 
flowers  of  gracious  poetry  never  fade,  and  the  leaves  of 
noble  biographies  never  wither." 

The  Egyptians  called  books  the  soul's  medicine. 

Happ_v  is  he  who,  when  the  day's  work  is  done,  finds  his  rest  and  solace 
and.  recreation  in  communion  with  the  master  minds  of  the  present  and  of 
the  past,  —  in  stud}^  and  in  literature.  There  is  no  rest,  no  recreation,  no 
refreshment  to  the  wearied  and  jaded  body  and  mind,  worn  bj'  work  and 
toil,  equal  to  the  intellectual  pleasures  to  which  I  have  just  been  referring. 
—  Alexander  Cockburn. 

A  book  is  good  company.  It  comes  to  your  longing  with  full  instruction, 
but  pursues  3'ou  never.  It  is  not  offended  at  your  absent-mindedness,  nor 
jealous  if  you  turn  to  other  pleasures,  of  leaf,  or  dress,  or  mineral,  or  even 
of  books.  It  silently  serves  the  soul  without  recompense,  not  even  for  the 
hire  of  love.  And  yet  more  noble,  it  seems  to  pass  from  itself,  and  to  en- 
ter the  memory,  and  to  hover  in  a  silvery  transformation  there,  until  the 
outward  book  is  but  a  bodv  and  its  soul  and  spirit  are  flown  to  you,  and 
possess  your  memory  like  a  spirit.  — Beecher. 


BOOKS.  447 

"  Books  are  strange  things.     Although  untongued  and  dumb, 
Yet  with  their  eloquence  they  sway  the  world ; 

And,  powerless  and  impassive  as  they  seem, 
Move  o'er  the  impressive  minds  and  hearts  of  men 
Like  fire  across  a  prairie.     Mind  sparks, 
They  star  the  else  dark  firmament." 

When  friends  grow  cold  and  the  converse  of  intimates  languishes  into 
vapid  civility  and  commonplace,  these  only  continue  the  unaltered  coun- 
tenance of  happier  days,  and  cheer  us  with  that  true  friendship  which 
never  deceived  hope,  nor  deserted  sorrow.  —  Washington  Irving. 


CHAPTEE  XXVI. 

EVERY    MAN    HIS    OWN    PARADISE. 

Oh,  it  is  great,  and  there  is  no  other  greatness, — to  make  some  nook 
of  God's  creation  more  fruitful,  better,  more  worthy  of  God,  to  make 
some  human  heart  a  little  wiser,  manlier,  happier,  —  more  blessed,  less 
accursed.  —  Caklyle. 

From  labor  health,  from  health  contentment  springs.  —  Beattie. 

When  a  man  does  not  find  repose  in  himself,  it  is  vain  for  him  to  seek  it 
elsewhere.  —  French  Proverb. 

No  pleasure  is  comparable  to  the  standing  upon  the  vantage-ground  of 
truth.  —  Bacon. 

I  have  never  gotten  over  my  surprise  that  I  should  have  been  born  in 
the  most  estimable  place  in  the  world,  and  in  the  very  nick  of  time.  — 
Thoreau. 

Write  it  in  your  heart  that  ever}'  day  is  the  best  day  in  the  year.  A  day 
is  a  more  magnificent  cloth  than  any  muslin;  the  mechanism  that  makes  it 
is  infinitely  cunninger,  and  you  shall  not  conceal  the  sleazy,  fraudulent, 
rotten  hours  you  have  slipped  into  it.  — Emekson. 

Real  happiness  is  cheap  enough,  yet  how  dearly  we  pay  for  its  counter- 
feit. —  HosEA  Ballou. 

All  who  would  win  joy  must  share  it,  happiness  was  born  a  twin.  — 
Byron. 

Know  then  this  truth,  enough  for  man  to  know. 

Virtue  alone  is  happiness  below. 

Pope. 
Joy  is  the  grace  we  say  to  God.  —  Jean  Ingelow. 
Health  is  the  vital  principle  of  bliss.  —  Thomson. 
My  mind  to  me  an  empire  is.  —  Robert  Southwell. 

JoLLiBOY.     "  Good-morning,  sir  !  " 
Bilious.     "Why,  sir,  I  don't  know  you." 
JoLLiBOY.     "  I  did  n't  say  you  did,  sir.     Good-morn- 
ing, sir  ! " 

"  What  action  gave  you  the  greatest  pleasure  in  life  ?  " 
a  gentleman  was  once  asked.     "  When  I  stopped  the 


I  .^  \   K\\>0  t    >^'*  \/^  ?$^;  ^,M  )^^y^,\^ 


*      Am    ' 


JOHN  RUSKIN  - 
Life  is  a  magician's  vase,  filled  to  the  brim  :  so  made  that  j'ou  can  neither  draw 
from  it,  nor  dip  out  of  it,  nor  thrust  your  hands  into  it  :  its  precious  contents  over- 
flow only  to  the  hand  that  drops  treasures  into  it.  If  you  drop  in  charity,  it  over- 
flows love  :  if  you  drop  in  envy  and  jealousy,  it  will  overflow  bitter  hatred  and 
discord. 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.        449 

sale  of  a  poor  widow's  furniture,  by  paying  a  small  sum 
due  by  her  for  rent,  and  received  her  blessing,"  he  re- 
plied. 

"  There  is  no  beautifier  of  complexion  or  form  or  be- 
havior," says  Emerson,  "  like  the  wish  to  scatter  joy 
and  not  pain  around  us." 

*'  If  you  have  caused  one  tear  the  less 
Down  Sorrow's  cheek  to  flow ; 
If  you  have  caused  one  smile  the  more 
On  any  face  to  glow ; 
Then,  friend,  you  have  not  lived  in  vain." 

There  is  a  picture  of  ineffaceable  grandeur  in  Plato's 
Phaedo,  where  Socrates,  who  has  been  unchained  that  he 
may  prepare  for  death,  sits  upon  his  bed,  and,  rubbing 
his  leg  gently  where  the  iron  has  galled  it,  begins,  not 
a  complaint  against  fate,  or  his  judges,  or  the  misery  of 
the  present  death,  but  a  grateful  little  reflection.  "  What 
an  unaccountable  thing,  my  friends,  that  seems  to  be 
which  men  call  pleasure  ;  and  how  wonderfully  it  is  re- 
lated to  that  which  appears  to  be  its  contrary  —  pain,  in 
that  they  will  not  both  be  present  to  a  man  at  the  same 
time  ;  yet  if  any  one  pursues  and  attains  the  one,  he  is 
almost  always  compelled  to  receive  the  other,  as  if  they 
were  both  united  together  from  one  head." 

"  I  once  talked  with  a  Eosicrucian  about  the  Great 
Secret,"  said  Addison.  "  He  talked  of  it  as  a  spirit 
that  lived  in  an  emerald,  and  converted  everything 
that  was  near  it  to  the  highest  perfection.  '  It  gives 
lustre  to  the  sun,'  said  he,  '  and  water  to  the  diamond. 
It  irradiates  every  metal,  and  enriches  lead  with  the 
property  of  gold.  It  brightens  smoke  into  flame,  flame 
into  light,  and  light  into  glory.  A  single  ray  dissipates 
pain  and  care  from  the  person  on  whom  it  falls.'  Then 
I  found  his  great  secret  was  Content." 

So  universally  does  man  seek  happiness,  and  so 
widely  does  society  in  its  organized  forms  seek  it,  that 
many  philosophers  have  declared  happiness  to  be  the 


450  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

final  motive  of  all  conduct,  —  tliat  all  other  motives 
are  but  shapes  of  this  one  all-prevailing  influence.  But, 
alas !  towards  what  different  points  of  the  moral  com- 
pass do  we  look  for  happiness.  Some  look  for  it 
above,  and  some  below,  some  in  the  grandeur  of  the 
soul,  and  some  in  the  grossness  of  the  senses,  some  in 
the  heaven  of  purity,  and  some  in  the  hell  of  licentious- 
ness. Wherever  it  is  sought,  the  imagination  adorns 
it  with  glowing  colors.  Multitudes  of  those  who  seek 
for  happiness  will  not  attain  the  object  of  their  search, 
because  they  seek  it  amiss.  Deceived  by  false  ideas  of 
its  nature,  other  multitudes  who  obtain  the  object  of 
their  search  will  find  it  to  be  sorrow  and  not  joy,  — 
Dead  Sea  apples,  and  not  celestial  fruits. 

"  Happiness  is  the  congruity  between  a  creature's 
nature  and  its  circumstances,"  said  Bishop  Butler. 

"  When  I  was  a  boy,"  said  Thackeray,  "  I  wanted 
some  taffy.  It  was  a  shilling ;  I  had  n't  one.  When  I 
was  a  man  I  had  a  shilling,  but  I  didn't  want  any 
taffy."  We  destroy  our  capacity  for  happiness  before 
we  get  ready  to  enjoy  it.  Happiness  often  seems  to  be 
in  what  we  do  not  possess.  Madame  de  Stael,  who  pos- 
sessed almost  everything  that  women  covet  and  men 
admire,  said  she  would  surrender  all  her  gifts  for  the 
one  that  nature  denied  her,  beauty. 

George  Macdonald  tells  of  a  castle  in  which  lived  an 
old  man  and  his  son.  Although  they  owned  the  castle 
they  were  so  poor  they  could  scarcely  get  bread  to 
keep  from  starving.  Yet  there  were  concealed  within 
the  castle  by  remote  ancestors,  for  future  necessity, 
very  costly  jewels.  Although  close  to  abundance,  they 
were  in  a  starving  condition  because  they  did  not  know 
of  their  wealth.  So  man,  in  the  very  midst  of  the 
wealth  of  the  universe,  is  starving  from  the  lack  of  a 
cultivated  observation,  or  the  power  to  see  and  enjoy 
the  riches  unnamable  which  surround  him.  In  the 
midst  of 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.        451 

*'  Ten  thousand  harps  attuned 
To  angelic  harmonies," 

man  sits  deaf  and  mute. 

Burke  said  he  would  not  give  a  peck  of  refuse  wheat 
for  all  that  is  called  fame  in  this  world.  Byron  con- 
fessed that  his  life  had  been  wretched,  and  he  longed 
to  rush  into  the  thickest  of  the  battle  and  end  his  ex- 
istence by  sudden  death.  Goethe  had  wealth  and  genius, 
yet  he  says  he  never  experienced  five  weeks  of  genuine 
pleasure.  There  is  a  Persian  story  that  the  great  king, 
being  out  of  spirits,  consulted  his  astrologers,  and  was 
told  that  happiness  could  be  found  by  wearing  the  shirt 
of  a  perfectly  happy  man.  The  court  and  the  homes 
of  all  the  prosperous  classes  were  searched  in  vain  ;  no 
such  man  could  be  found.  At  last  a  common  laborer 
was  found  to  fulfill  the  conditions  ;  he  was  absolutely 
happy,  but,  alas  !  the  remedy  was  as  far  off  as  ever :  the 
man  had  no  shirt. 

Thousands  of  men  have  made  shipwreck  in  their  at- 
tempts to  get  the  honey  out  of  the  hive  of  life  without 
getting  stung.  "  Antony  sought  for  happiness  in  love  ; 
Brutus  in  glory ;  Caesar  in  dominion ;  the  first  found 
disgrace,  the  second  disgust,  the  last  ingratitude,  and 
each  destruction." 

It  is  impossible  to  get  happiness  from  any  one  thing 
in  life  if  followed  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else. 
In  that  fascinating  little  fairy  tale,  "  Through  the  Look- 
ing-Glass,"  the  White  Knight  provides  himself  before 
starting  out  on  a  journey  with  a  mouse-trap,  lest  he 
might  be  troubled  with  mice,  and  ^a  beehive  in  case  he 
should  come  across  a  swarm  of  bees.  Many  people 
fortify  themselves  against  lots  of  troubles  that  never 
come. 

Who  is  so  happy  that  he  does  not  have  a  thorn  in 
the  flesh  ?  Think  you  that  the  richest  are  the  happiest  ? 
Was  the  great  banker  Eothschild  happy  ?  He  held 
the  purse  of  the  world,  but  this  was  powerless  to  make 


452  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

him  happy.  A  gentleman  visiting  him  and  looking 
upon  his  luxurious  surroundings  remarked,  "  You  must 
be  a  happy  man."  "  Me  happy ! "  exclaimed  the  old 
money-lender,  peering  out  from  under  his  eyebrows, 
"  when  just  now  comes  a  letter  from  some  villain  in  a 
back  street  declaring  that  if  I  don't  send  him  fifty 
pounds  before  to-morrow  night  he  will  make  an  attempt 
upon  my  life.     Me  happy  ! " 

Nothing  in  the  world  seems  easier  than  to  get  happi- 
ness out  of  money,  but  the  richest  people  in  the  world 
testify  to  the  contrary.  It  is  a  very  rare  thing  to  find 
a  wealthy  man  who  is  happy ;  wealth  has  no  power  to 
produce  happiness.  It  takes  away  the  spur  of  necessity 
which  is  man's  great  developer.  It  tends  to  remove 
the  incentives  to  self-restraint,  hinders  self-conquest, 
and  opens  doors  to  other  temptations.  It  takes  away 
the  spur  of  industry  which  coordinates  the  faculties 
of  the  mind,  keeps  them  in  healthy  action,  and  drives 
away  ennui,  the  curse  of  the  rich.  Discontent  is  pre- 
eminently a  sin  of  the  well-to-do. 

A  Yorkshire  man  defined  happiness  as  "  a  bit  more 
than  we  've  got,"  But,  unfortunately,  this  ''  bit  more  " 
causes  a  large  part  of  the  misery  of  the  world.  It  is  a 
"  bit  more  "  power,  a  "  bit  more  "  fame,  a  "  bit  more  " 
land,  a  "bit  more"  money,  which  is  the  will-o'-the-wisp 
that  we  are  forever  chasing  through  life,  that  makes  us 
discontented,  unhappy,  unsteady,  robs  us  of  usefulness, 
of  culture,  of  character,  of  manhood,  of  everything  that 
is  really  desirable  through  life. 

Great  wealth  and  luxury  are  not  characteristic  of  the 
nineteenth  century  alone.  Men  in  all  ages  have  sought 
in  vain  to  find  happiness  in  riches. 

Apicius  spent  two  millions  and  a  half  in  dissipation, 
and  then  poisoned  himself  for  fear  that  his  remaining 
four  hundred  thousand  dollars  would  not  keep  him 
from  want.  Cleopatra  dissolved  in  vinegar  a  pearl 
worth  four   hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  gave  it  to 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.         453 

the  enchanted  Antony  to  drink  at  an  entertainment 
given  in  his  honor.  Esopus  spent  four  thousand  dollars 
on  a  single  dish  at  a  banquet.  Caligula  spent  four  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  for  one  supper.  The  ordinary 
cost  of  a  banquet  of  Lucullus  was  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars.  CrcBSus  was  only  worth  about  seventeen 
millions,  which  is  about  the  yearly  income  of  one  man 
in  America.  He  was  no  more  happy  than  Xerxes,  who, 
not  content  with  enormous  armies  and  fleets  and  wealth 
that  was  fabulous,  offered  a  reward  for  the  inventor  of 
a  new  pleasure. 

As  sunshine  brings  out  the  flowers  and  ripens  the 
fruit  of  nature,  the  sunshine  of  the  soul  brings  out  the 
flowers  and  ripens  the  fruitage  of  life.  A  depressed, 
sour,  melancholy  soul,  a  life  which  has  ceased  to  believe 
in  its  own  sacredness,  its  own  power,  its  own  mission,  a 
life  which  sinks  into  querulous  egotism  or  vegetating 
aimlessness,  has  become  crippled  and  useless.  "  An  ir- 
ritable man  lies  like  a  hedgehog,  rolled  up  the  wrong  way, 
torturing  himself  with  his  own  quills."  "  He  who  per- 
sists in  pricking  and  scratching  himself  with  a  thorn,  and 
refuses  to  enjoy  the  fragrance  of  the  roses,  is  an  ingrate 
to  Grod  and  a  torment  to  himself." 

If  one  loves  beauty  and  looks  for  it,  he  will  see  it 
everywhere.  If  there  is  music  in  his  soul,  he  will  hear 
it  everywhere  ;  every  object  in  nature  will  sing  to  him. 
Two  men  who  live  in  the  same  house  and  do  the  same 
work  may  not  live  in  the  same  world.  Although  they 
are  under  the  same  roof,  one  may  see  only  deformity 
and  ugliness ;  to  him  the  world  is  out  of  joint,  every- 
thing is  cross-grained  and  out  of  sorts  ;  the  other  is  sur- 
rounded with  beauty  and  harmony  ;  everybody  is  kind 
to  him  ;  nobody  wishes  him  harm.  These  men  see  the 
same  objects,  but  they  do  not  look  through  the  same 
glasses ;  one  looks  through  a  smoked  glass  which  drapes 
the  whole  world  in  mourning,  the  other  looks  through 
rose-colored  lenses  which  tint  everything  with  loveliness 


454  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

and  touch  it  with  beauty;  he  does  not  need  to  go  to 
Switzerland  to  see  the  Alps  ;  he  sees  them  in  imagina- 
tion in  the  thunder  cloud.  The  other  is  like  a  farmer 
who  raised  many  kinds  of  crops.      The  author  said  to 

him  :  "  Mr.  N ,  this  rain  will  be  fine  for  your  grass 

crop."  "  Yes,  perhaps/'  he  replied,  "  but  it  is  very  bad 
for  corn  5  I  don't  think  we  '11  have  half  a  crop."  A  few 
days  later  he  met  him  again  and  said  :  ''  This  is  a  fine 
sun  for  corn,  Mr.  N ."  '^  Yes,"  said  he,  "  but  it 's  aw- 
ful for  rye  ;  rye  wants  cold  weather."  One  cool  morning 
he  met  him  again,  soon  after,  and  said  :  "  This  is  a  cap- 
ital day  for  rye."  "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  but  it  is  the  worst 
kind  of  weather  for  corn  and  grass  ;  they  want  heat  to 
bring  them  forward." 

Collingwood  never  saw  a  vacant  place  in  his  estate 
but  he  took  an  acorn  out  of  his  pocket  and  dropped  it 
in.  An  acorn  costs  nothing,  but  it  may  produce  an  oak  : 
so  kind  words,  dropped  into  every  chink  and  cranny 
and  waste  place  in  life,  cost  nothing,  but  may  sprout 
into  happiness  and  cheer  many  an  otherwise  weary  life. 
How  refreshing  are  the  sunny  natures  which  always 
make  the  most  of  everything.  "  I  am  thankful  it  was 
not  my  neck,"  said  a  man  who  fell  from  a  ladder  and 
broke  his  leg.  He  was  one  who  saw  a  silver  lining  to 
every  cloud.  If  you  consulted  him  in  misfortune,  he 
would  reply  :  "  You  will  soon  get  over  it.  I  '11  tell  you 
what  to  do."  From  his  neighbor  Croaker,  you  would 
get  for  consolation  or  encouragement :  "  I  told  you  it 
would  come  to  this,"  and  in  his  company  you  see  all 
the  joy  in  nature  slowly  evaporate.  Some  people  are 
always  grumbling  ;  if  they  had  been  born  in  the  Garden 
of  Eden  they  would  have  found  plenty  to  complain  of  : 
others  are  happy  everywhere ;  they  see  beauties  and 
find  blessings  all  around  them.  Some  people  are  so 
troubled  by  the  spots  on  the  sun  that  they  can  never 
bask  in  its  light  or  participate  in  the  joy  which  it  gives 
to  even  the  animals. 


EVERY  MAN  HIS   OWN  PARADISE.         455 

Can  you  call  to  mind  any  individual  Avho  studied  his 
own  happiness  who  was  ever  happy  ?  Can  you  call  to 
mind  any  individual  who  labored  for  duty  and  the  hap- 
piness of  others  who  was  unhappy  ?  Do7i^t  expect  too 
much  from  life.  Enjoyments  that  hold  out  such  glitter- 
ing prizes  and  hopes,  nature  knows,  can  never  be  real- 
ized.    She  knows  that  it  is  a  spur  that  we  want. 

A  great  lord  said  that  during  a  reign  of  fifty  years  he 
never  enjoyed  but  fourteen  days  of  absolute  happiness. 
Haman  next  to  the  throne  was  not  half  so  happy  as 
Mordecai,  the  gatekeeper.  Nero  the  emperor  was  a 
miserable  prisoner  in  a  luxurious  palace,  compared  with 
Paul,  the  happy  free  man  who  could  write  in  a  Koman 
dungeon  upon  the  receipt  of  a  donation  from  his  friends  : 
"  I  have  all  and  abound  ;  I  am  full." 

Some  one  has  said  that  there  are  two  things  that  we 
should  never  worry  about ;  the  things  that  can  be  helped, 
and  the  things  that  can't  be  helped.  Charles  Kingsley 
said:  "1  know  of  nothing  that  cripples  a  man  more 
than  anxiety."  In  the  mountains  of  Colorado  there  are 
massive  red  sandstone  rocks  which  have  been  sculptured 
into  all  sorts  of  grotesque  shapes  by  the  grains  of  sand 
and  gravel  which  the  fierce  winds  have  hurled  against 
them  for  ages.  So  the  fairest  faces  have  been  distorted 
into  repulsiveness,  and  sculptured  into  ugliness  by  the 
sands  of  worriment  and  anxiety,  and  the  sunniest  tem- 
pers, together  with  everything  that  is  lovely  and  attrac- 
tive, have  been  ruined. 

It  seems  almost  impossible  for  some  people  to  find 
enjoyment  without  dragging  in  more  or  less  of  the 
bitter  things  of  life  :  they  cannot  enjoy  unmixed  sweets  ; 
there  must  be  some  aloes  and  myrrh  in  their  cup  of  hap- 
piness ;  but  he  alone  is  the  happy  man  who  has  learned 
to  extract  happiness,  not  from  ideal  conditions,  but  from 
the  actual  ones  about  him,  —  who  has  learned,  like  the 
bee,  to  find  sweetness  in  the  commonest  flower,  in  spite 
of  flies  and  disgusting  bugs  which  buzz  around.     The 


456  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

man  who  has  mastered  the  secret  of  happiness  will  not 
wait  for  ideal  surroundings ;  he  will  not  wait  until  he 
gets  rich,  until  he  can  travel  abroad,  until  he  can  afford 
to  surround  himself  Avith  works  of  the  great  masters  ; 
but  he  will  make  the  most  possible  of  what  he  does 
have. 

Some  of  the  happiest  homes  I  have  ever  been  in, 
ideal  homes,  where  intelligence,  peace,  and  harmony 
dwell,  have  been  homes  of  poor  people.  No  rich  carpets 
covered  the  floors  ;  there  were  no  costly  paintings  on 
the  walls,  no  piano,  no  library,  no  works  of  art.  But 
there  were  contented  minds,  devoted  and  unselfish  lives, 
each  contributing  as  much  as  possible  to  the  happiness 
of  all,  and  endeavoring  to  compensate  by  intelligence 
and  kindness  for  the  poverty  of  their  surroundings.  No 
man  is  happy  who  does  not  think  himself  so.  Nothing 
is  wanted  to  make  yourself  wretched  but  to  fancy  your- 
self miserable. 

No  one  ever  found  the  world  quite  as  he  would  like 
it.  You  will  be  sure  to  have  burdens  laid  upon  you 
that  belong  to  other  people,  unless  you  are  a  shirk  your- 
self ;  but  don't  grumble.  If  the  work  needs  doing  and 
you  can  do  it,  never  mind  about  the  other  one  who 
ought  to  have  done  it,  and  didn't;  do  it  yourself. 
These  workers  who  fill  up  the  gaps,  and  smooth  away 
the  rough  spots,  and  finish  up  the  jobs  that  others 
leave  undone,  —  they  are  the  true  peace-makers,  and 
worth  a  regiment  of  grumblers. 

"  I  question  if  care  and  doubt  ever  wrote  their  names 
so  legibly  on  the  faces  of  any  population,"  says  Emer- 
son. "  Old  age  begins  in  the  nursery,  and  before  the 
young  American  is  put  into  jacket  and  trousers  he  says, 
*  I  want  something  which  I  never  saw  before  :  I  wish  I 
was  not  I.'  "  Some  people  are  always  rehearsing  their 
woes  and  begging  for  sympathy.  They  are  born  sick 
and  tired.  Nothing  satisfies  or  pleases  them.  Listless 
or  dissatisfied,  they  cast  a  gloom  wherever  they  go. 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.         457 

As  Gough  said  :  "  They  would  throw  a  damper  on  a 
funeral.''  They  would  find  fault  in  heaven  because 
their  halo  didn't  fit  them.  They  hate  enthusiastic 
people.  They  see  no  beauty  nor  design  in  the  works  of 
nature.  With  them,  times  are  always  hard,  money 
always  scarce.  Their  vane  always  points  east.  They 
protest  forever  against  the  wrong,  but  never  advocate 
the  right.  Yet  we  must  have  charity  for  such  people, 
for,  as  a  rule,  they  are  not  well  balanced  or  systemati- 
cally well  organized.  They  are  the  creatures  of  their 
moods,  or  sometimes  the  victims  of  poor  cooking.  Dr. 
Johnson  says,  "  Every  man  is  a  rascal  as  soon  as  he  is 
sick." 

Let  no  man  imagine  that  a  life  all  ease  is  a  happy 
life.  "  You  ask  me  why  I  don't  stop  work,"  said 
Eussell  Sage  at  seventy-five,  with  a  fortune  of  seventy- 
five  million  dollars.  "  I  '11  do  it  if  you  will  answer  me 
one  question :  '  What  else  can  I  do  that  will  do  as  much 
good  and  keep  me  as  well  ? '  Well,  you  can't  answer 
it ;  nobody  can." 

"  Happiness  and  selfishness  cannot  both .  flourish  on 
the  same  stem."  The  Emperor  Nero  was  a  remarkable 
example  of  the  selfish  and  exclusive  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness. The  attainment  of  his  own  gratification,  regard- 
less of  the  happiness  and  interests  of  others,  was  his 
only  aim.  Eew  persons  ever  had  greater  means  and  fa- 
cilities for  self -gratification.  From  the  senator  to  the 
slave,  everybody  in  the  empire  crouched  in  servile  sub- 
jection before  his  throne.  Enormous  revenues  from  the 
provinces  were  poured  into  his  coffers,  and  no  one  dared 
criticise  his  manner  of  spending  it.  He  was  absolute 
monarch,  holding  the  destinies  of  millions  at  his  will. 
He  came  to  the  throne  at  seventeen ;  and  during  the 
fifteen  years  of  his  reign  he  exhausted  every  known 
means  of  passionate  indulgence.  "  The  lust  of  the  flesh, 
the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life  "  gave  up  to 
him  everything  in  their  power  to  give.     He  left  nothing 


458  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

untried  or  untouched  that  could,  stimulate  the  palate  or 
arouse  his  passions  or  administer  in  any  way  to  his  sen- 
sual gratification.  After  the  great  fire  in  Kome  he 
built  his  golden  palace,  and  said,  "Now,  at  last,  T  am 
lodged  like  a  man ; "  but  alas  !  how  futile  was  his 
search  for  happiness.  His  jaded  appetite  and  over- 
strained passion  became  sated,  and  revolted  at  the  very 
effort  to  stimulate  them  more.  They  were  already 
cloyed,  and  mocked  his  efforts  to  extract  more  pleasure 
from  them.  At  last  he  was  forced  to  flee  before  an 
outraged  people,  and  took  refuge  in  a  miserable  slave- 
hut,  trembling  like  a  base  coward.  In  that  squalid 
hovel,  at  his  own  request,  a  slave  did  him  the  favor  to 
end  his  miserable  life. 

Give  me  the  man  who,  like  Emerson,  sees  longevity  in 
his  cause,  and  who  believes  there  is  a  remedy  for  every 
wrong,  a  satisfaction  for  every  longing  soul ;  the  man 
who  believes  the  best  of  everybody,  and  who  sees  beauty 
and  loveliness  where  others  see  ugliness  and  disgust. 
Give  me  the  man  who  believes  in  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  truth  over  error,  of  harmony  over  discord,  of  love  over 
hate,  of  purity  over  vice,  of  light  over  darkness,  of  life 
over  death.     Such  men  are  the  true  nation-builders. 

It  is  men  like  Phillip  Armour,  who  shed  care  as  a 
duck's  back  sheds  water,  who  turn  the  key  on  business 
when  they  leave  the  store,  that  are  happy  and  the  most 
successful.  Everlastingly  hugging  the  burden  of  our 
business,  wherever  we  go,  disappoints  and  disgusts  all 
our  friends  and  relatives.  Constant  contemplation  of 
trouble  stamps  itself  upon  the  face  until  it  is  no  longer 
lovely.  You  are  smaller,  meaner,  stingier,  and  more  dis- 
agreeable for  all  the  misery  you  have  peddled  out  at 
home.  All  this  never  advanced  your  business  one  inch ; 
on  the  contrary  it  has  retarded  it  by  undermining  your 
health,  taking  away  your  elasticity  of  mind,  without 
which  no  good  work  is  done,  and  it  has  lost  you  friends 
and  customers. 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.        459 

Go  about  your  work  with  a  smile  on  your  face.  No- 
body likes  gloom.  Friends  will  call  and  leave  their 
sympathy  when  one  of  your  famil}^  dies,  but  they  do 
not  like  to  remain  in  the  house  of  death.  Learn  early 
in  life  to  drop  your  business  at  the  door  and  lock  it  up 
in  the  office  or  store.  It  is  after  business  hours,  not  in 
them,  that  men  break  down. 

It  is  not  so  much  the  great  sorrows,  the  great  burdens, 
the  great  hardships,  the  great  calamities,  that  cloud 
over  the  sunshine  of  life,  as  the  little  petty  vexations, 
insignificant  anxieties  and  fears,  the  little  daily  dyings, 
which  render  our  lives  unhappy.  It  is  the  little  dis- 
putes, little  fault-findings,  little  insinuations,  little  re- 
flections, sharp  criticisms,  fretting,  stewing,  impatience, 
little  unkindnesses,  slurs,  little  discourtesies,  bad  tem- 
per, that  create  most  of  the  discord  and  unhappiness 
in  the  family.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  the  little  acts 
of  kindness,  the  little  courtesies,  the  disposition  to  be 
accommodating,  to  be  helpful,  to  be  sympathetic,  to  be 
unselfish,  to  be  careful  not  to  wound  the  feelings,  not 
to  expose  the  sore  spots,  to  be  charitable  of  the  weak- 
nesses of  others,  to  be  considerate,  —  these  are  the  little 
things  which,  added  up  at  night,  are  found  to  be  the 
secret  of  a  happy  day. 

"  The  most  completely  lost  of  all  days,"  said  Cham- 
fort,  "is  the  one  in  which  we  have  not  laughed." 
"  Mirth  is  God's  medicine  :  everybody  ought  to  bathe  in 
it,"  said  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes.  Hume  found  in  an 
old  manuscript  of  King  Edward  II.  of  England  an  item  : 
"A  crown,  for  making  the  king  laugh."  Lycurgus  dedi- 
cated a  little  statue  to  the  god  of  Laughter  in  each  hi 
the  Spartan  eating-halls.  There  is  no  table  sauce  like 
laughter  at  meals.  It  is  the  great  enemy  of  dyspepsia. 
Humor  was  Lincoln's  life-preserver,  as  it  has  been  of 
thousands  of  others.  "If  it  were  not  for  this  occa- 
sional vent,"  he  used  to  say,  "  I  should  die."  Addison 
says,  "Cheerfulness  lightens  sickness,  poverty,  affliction ; 


460  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

converts  ignorance  into  an  amiable  simplicity,  and  ren- 
ders deformity  itself  agreeable.'^ 

Look  outwardly  and  behold  the  variety  and  redun- 
dancy of  means  which  the  Creator  has  prepared  to  meet 
and  to  satisfy  all  the  real  wants  of  his  children.  So 
ample  and  multitudinous  are  the  gifts  of  God,  that  He 
needed  an  immensity  of  space  for  their  storehouse ; 
and  so  various  are  they,  and  ascending  one  above  an- 
other in  their  adaptation  to  our  capacities  of  enjoyment, 
that  we  need  an  eternity  to  sit  out  the  banquet. 

We  may  be  miserable  amidst  victories  or  happy  in  de- 
feat. Fortunate  is  he  whose  fountain  of  happiness  lies 
within  himself,  whose  happiness  is  not  dependent  upon 
the  caprice  of  companions  or  favor  of  those  in  office. 

There  was  once  a  king  who  had  a  little  boy  whom  he 
loved  very  much,  and  whom  he  took  a  deal  of  pains  to 
make  happy.  He  gave  him  a  pony  to  ride,  beautiful 
rooms  to  live  in,  pictures,  books,  toys  without  number, 
teachers,  companions,  and  everything  that  money  could 
buy  or  ingenuity  devise ;  but  for  all  this,  the  young 
prince  was  unhappy.  He  wore  a  frown  wherever  he 
went,  and  was  always  wishing  for  something  he  did  not 
have.  At  length  a  magician  came  to  the  court.  He  saw 
the  scowl  on  the  boy's  face  and  said  to  the  king :  "  I 
can  make  your  son  happy,  and  turn  his  frowns  into 
smiles,  but  you  must  pay  me  a  great  price  for  telling 
him  this  secret."  "  All  right,"  said  the  king  ;  "  what- 
ever you  ask,  I  will  give."  The  magician  took  the  boy 
into  a  private  room.  He  wrote  something  with  a  white 
substance  on  a  piece  of  paper.  He  gave  the  boy  a  can- 
dlie,  and  told  him  to  light  it  and  hold  it  under  the  paper, 
and  then  see  what  he  could  read.  Then  the  magician 
went  away.  The  boy  did  as  he  had  been  told,  and  the 
white  letters  turned  into  a  beautiful  blue.  They  formed 
these  words  :  "  Do  a  kindness  to  some  one  every  day." 
The  prince  followed  the  advice,  and  became  the  happiest 
boy  in  the  realm. 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.        461 

Probably  not  one  of  those  who  will  take  up  this  book 
is  perfectly  happy,  and  there  is  scarcely  one  who  does 
not  fancy  that  he  or  she  might  be  very  much  better  off. 
Man  creates  the  world  he  lives  in.  Good  or  bad,  it  is 
like  himself.  One  man's  heart  makes  him  a  king  in  a 
hovel,  —  another's,  a  wretch  in  a  palace.  A  sunny, 
cheerful  heart  changes  a  world  of  gloom  into  a  paradise 
of  beauty.  "  The  darkest  shadows  of  life  are  those 
which  a  man  makes  when  he  stands  in  his  own  light." 

"There  are  people,"  said  an  old  divine,  "who  lead 
us  heavenward,  but  they  stick  pins  in  us  all  the  way." 

As  there  are  some  deaf  to  certain  sounds  and  blind 
to  certain  colors,  so  there  are  those  who  seem  deaf  and 
blind  to  certain  pleasures.  What  makes  me  laugh 
until  I  almost  go  into  convulsions  moves  them  not  at  all. 
They  look  on  with  as  much  indifference  as  does  the 
Egyptian  Sphinx  upon  the  superstitious,  who  look  up 
to  it  to  solve  their  mysteries.  Some  people  doubt 
whether  it  is  right  or  even  possible  that  we  should  be 
happy.  But  do  not  let  the  music  and  poetry  die  out  of 
you  while  struggling  for  that  which  can  never  enrich 
the  character  nor  add  one  penny  to  the  soul's  wealth. 

"  The  good  things  of  life  were  made  to  he  enjoyed^ 
And  no  matter  where  we  live,  there  is  no  poverty- 
stricken  region  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  where  nature 
is  not  performing  perpetual  miracles  right  before  our 
eyes.  No  spot  is  so  barren  but  ideas  will  grow,  but  love 
will  beautify,  no  object  so  ugly  but  is  full  of  beauty,  no 
spot  so  forsaken  but  has  myriads  of  perfect  beings,  no 
spot  so  foul  but  is  full  of  myst^ery  and  interest,  if  seen 
with  a  telescopic  eye.  "  Even  the  direst  tasks,  like  the 
ugly  toad  with  the  jewel  in  its  head,  have  some  redeem- 
ing circumstances  that  cheat  them  of  their  repulsive- 
ness." 

Scatter  your  flowers  as  you  go,  you  will  never  go  over 
the  same  road  again,  and  if  you  did,  these  flowers,  which 
blossom  daily,  if  unused,  will  fade. 


462  ARCHITECTS   OF  FATE. 

Stephen  Girard  said,  "  As  for  myself,  I  live  like  a 
galley-slave,  constantly  occupied  and  often  passing  a 
night  without  sleep.  I  am  wrapped  up  in  a  labyrinth 
of  affairs,  and  worn  out  with  cares.  I  do  not  value  a 
fortune ;  the  love  of  labor  is  my  highest  motive.*' 

"  I  am  ready  to  jump  out  of  my  skin  with  joy,  as  for 
an  uncommon  favor,"  said  the  aged  Montaigne,  "  when 
nothing  ails  me." 

"  Every  time  the  sheep  bleats,  it  loses  a  mouthful, 
and  every  time  we  complain  we  lose  a  blessing." 

"  Oh,  discontented  man,  what  is  it  you  want  ?  "  asks 
Emerson.  "  Pay  the  price  and  take  it."  "  I  will  give 
this  field  to  any  man  contented,"  was  the  sign  set  up 
by  an  eccentric  man  of  wealth.  A  man  soon  came  to 
claim  the  land.  "  Well,  sir,  are  you  a  contented  man  ?  " 
"  Yes,  sir,  very."  "  Then  what  do  you  want  of  my 
field  ?  "  asked  the  rich  man,  but  the  applicant  left  with- 
out replying. 

Contentment  consists  not  in  adding  more  fuel,  but  in 
taking  away  some  fire ;  not  in  adding  to  our  wealth,  but 
in  subtracting  our  desires.  Enough  is  as  good  as  a 
feast ;  you  may  butter  your  bread  till  you  cannot  eat 
it. 

How  few  people  look  as  though  any  joy  had  come 
down  from  heaven  and  sung  in  their  souls.  We  can 
see  lines  of  thought,  of  fear,  of  care,  in  many  a  face,  — 
money  lines,  shrewd,  grasping  lines,  —  but  how  few 
happy  lines.  There  are  a  hundred  *^  successful  "  men 
for  one  that  is  contented. 

Happiness  does  not  lie  in  power  and  dominion,  for 
"  Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown."  Bacon 
called  riches  "the  baggage  of  virtue."  Cromwell  had 
nine  years  of  troubled  greatness :  he  was  in  constant 
fear  of  his  life,  and  always  wore  armor  under  his 
clothing,  and  was  afraid  to  sleep  twice  in  the  same 
room  ;  he  was  ever  in  mortal  terror  of  assassination, 
and  always  carried  pistols  in  his  pockets. 


EVERY  MAN  HIS  OWN  PARADISE.        463 

People  who  are  forever  hunting  for  happiness  never 
find  it.  They  forget  that  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
within  you."  It  does  not  exist  anywhere  else :  not  in. 
wealth,  not  in  houses,  not  in  lands,  not  in  fame.  It  will 
not  yield  up  its  treasure  to  the  selfish  seeker,  nor  can  it 
be  touched  by  unwashed  hands.  Happiness,  it  has  been 
said,  is  a  mosaic  composed  of  very  small  stones.  Each 
taken  singly  may  be  of  little  value  ;  but  when  all  are 
grouped  together,  combined  and  set,  they  form  a  pleasing 
and  graceful  whole  —  a  costly  jewel.  Paradise  is  here,  or 
nowhere.  Do  not  go  from  home  to  find  it.  If  you  are 
miserable  and  gloomy,  go  where  you  will,  your  jaundice 
and  spleen  will  get  there  first. 

"  In  your  hearts  are  the  birds  and  the  sunshine, 
In  your  thoughts  the  brooklets  flow." 

We  carry  with  us  the  beauty  we  visit,  and  the  song 
which  enchants  us.  "  When  the  sun  shines,  it  shines 
everywhere,"  was  Eubens'  motto.  "  Happiness  is  a  thing 
to  be  practiced,  like  a  violin.^'  The  fact  is,  happiness  is 
never  where  it  seems  to  be.  If  we  chase  it  and  attempt 
its  capture,  it  vanishes  as  does  the  pursued  rainbow. 
Hapinness  dwells  in  performed  duty  and  nowhere  else. 
Every  time  we  perform  a  duty  unselfishly,  it  yields  us 
a  little  bit  of  happiness ;  but  it  will  never  give  itself 
up,  except  to  the  hand  that  performs  the  duty.  It  can 
never  come  through  a  substitute,  never  by  proxy. 

There  are  a  few  noble  natures  whose  very  presence 
carries  sunshine  with  them  wherever  they  go ;  a  sun- 
shine which  means  pity  for  the  ppor,  sympathy  for  the 
suffering,  help  for  the  unfortunate,  and  benignity  to- 
wards all.  It  is  the  sunshine,  and  not  the  cloud,  that 
makes  the  flower.  There  is  more  virtue  in  one  sun- 
beam than  in  a  whole  hemisphere  of  cloud  and  gloom. 

Horace  Mann  says  that  all  analogy  teaches  us  that 
we  have  undeveloped  faculties  within  us,  suscepti- 
bilities of  happiness  yet  dormant,  for  whose  fervor  and 


464  ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE. 

intensity   this    world  is  too  cold   and   ungenial ;   and 
which,  therefore,  await  our  translation  to  the  land  of 
the  blest,  where  a  purer  ether  and  subtler  elemental 
fires  shall  kindle  them  into  life.     While  we  were  yet 
in  embryo,  our  body  existed  in  form  as  perfect  as  at 
present ;  our  muscles,  our  brains,  our  lungs,  and  all  our 
organs  of  sense,  were  complete ;  but  we  needed  to  be 
ushered  into  this  world  of  air  and  light  and  motion  and 
beauty,  to  call  them   into  play.     So  in  regard  to  the 
next  stage  of  existence,  we  have  the  assurance  of  splen- 
dors, and  symphonies,  and  loves,  such  as  eye  hath  not 
seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the 
heart  of  man  to  conceive ;  and  if  so,  then  we  must  now 
have  within  us,  lying  undeveloped  and  inert,  the  rudi- 
mentary organs  of  eye,  and  ear,  and  heart,  with  which 
we  shall  see  and  hear  the  vision,  the  hallelujah,  and  the 
ecstasy  of  the  better  world.     As  to  this  unseen  and  un- 
imagined  magnificence  and  beatitude  of  the  future  life, 
we  are,  while  sojourning  upon  earth,  only  in  the  ante- 
natal state  of  darkness  and  inactivity.     Such  is  the  na- 
ture which  God  has  bestowed  upon  us,  to  be  magnified, 
enlightened,  and  adorned ;  and  it  is  not  given  to  mortal 
eloquence  or  poesy,  with  all  their  many  colored  words, 
to  paint  the  number  and  the  variegation  of  its  glories.  ' 

"  Happy  the  man,  and  happy  he  alone, 
He  who  can  call  to-day  his  own : 
He  who,  secure  within  himself  can  say. 
To-morrow  do  thy  worst,  for  I  have  lived  to-day." 

Give  me  insight  into  to-day,  and  you  may  have  the  antique  and  future 
worlds.  — Emerson. 

"Just  to  fill  the  hour,  that  is  happiness." 

"  Happy  then  is  the  man  who  has  that  in  his  soul  which  acts  upon  oth- 
ers as  April  airs  on  violet  roots.  Gifts  from  the  hand  are  silver  and  gold, 
but  the  heart  gives  that  which  neither  silver  nor  gold  can  buv.  To  be  full 
of  goodness,  full  of  cheerfulness,  full  of  sympathv,  full  of  helpful  hope, 
causes  a  man  to  move  on  human  life  as  stars  move  on  dark  seas  to 
bewildered  mariners." 


INDEX. 


Acorn,  and  oak,  93;  Emerson ,  268  ;  in 
giant's  eve,  271. 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  bold  in  Congress,  27;  332; 
slept  before  Judge  Story,  321. 

Addison,  storms,  from  God,  97  ;  marble 
in  quarry,  167  ;  the  Great  Secret,  449; 
cheerfulness,  459. 

JSolian  Harp,  German  Baron's,  102. 

Agassiz,  left  a  fortune,  225,  226  ;  rich 
without  money,  246  ;  no  time  to  make 
money,  252;  258;  270:408. 

Aim,  unwavering,  107-124 ;  Michael  An- 
gelo,  Columbus,  Old  Guard  to  sur- 
geon, Napoleon,  107  ;  Pitt,  108  ;  New 
Jersey's  ports  and  New  York,  Glad- 
stone, Victor  Hugo,  "Notre  Dame," 
109;  "  to  keep  gun  from  scattering,-' 
men  at  the  front,  110 ;  Carlyle,  Yan- 
kee and  English  sailoi's,  epitaph  of 
Joseph  II.  of  Austria,  111 ;  Sir  James 
Mackintosh's  lack  of  aim,  E.  P.  Whip- 
ple, 112  ;  Professor  Henry  of  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  Edward  Everett, 
lack  of,  113  ;  Voltaire  on  La  Harpe, 
Coleridge,  lack  of  aim,  Southey,  Bis- 
marck, Grant,  Rufus  Choate,  114  ; 
what  the  age  calls  for,  115;  intense 
light  makes  beautiful,  power  in  a  vo- 
cation mastered,  116  ;  changing  occu- 
pation fatal  to  success,  successful  men 
make  a  life  work  of  one  thing,  work- 
ing without  aim,  117  ;  flower  inclining 
in  same  direction,  advantages  of  a 
definite  aim,  118  ;  energy  not  enough, 
Monsieur  Keuard's  announcement, 
119;  Pitt's  one  aim,  Rowland  Hill, 
120;  Christ,  why  Michael  Angelo  did 
not  marry,  121 ;  St.  Paul's  one  idea, 
122;  Gambetta's  career,  122. 

Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  manuscript  returned, 
171 ;  grit,  199. 

Alexander  the  Great,  a  conqueror,  35 ; 
will-power,  59  ;  his  grit,  194  ;  finds  a 
pacific  people,  221 ;  and  Diogenes,  250  ; 
at  gates  of  Paradise,  251 ;  his  tribute 
to  his  teacher,  425  ;  442. 

Alexander  V.,  "  born  mud,  died  mar- 
ble," 16L 

Alice,  Princess,  sad  death  of,  223. 

Ali  Ilafed  and  Priest,  258. 

American  sculptors,  263  ;  Patrick  Heni'y, 
264 ;    physicians,    310 ;    honey    and 


sting,  321 ;  prize,  322 ;  land  of  oppor- 
tunities, 429  ;  and  English,  444. 

Ames,  Fisher,  on  Roger  Sherman,  217. 

Anaximander,  "must  sing  better,"  90. 

Angelo,  Michael,  learning,  56;  three  oc- 
cupations, 69  ;  71 ;  "  Art  is  jealous," 
107  ;  reason  for  not  marrying,  121  ; 
great  preparation,  171 ;  seven  years  on 
Sistine  Chapel,  173  ;  the  piece  of  mar- 
ble, 263  ;  on  trifles,  276  ;  self-control, 
294;  333. 

Angels'  Autopsies,  323-326. 

Auger,  Shaftesbury  on,  28 ;  effect  in 
secretions,  375 ;  causes  death,  375 ; 
effect  in  nursing  mother,  376;  380. 

Antoinette,  Marie,  hair  turns  white,  384. 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  happiness,  461 ; 
drank  pearls,  452. 

Apelles,  portrait  of  perfect  woman,  6. 

"Arabian  Nights"  aroused  Coleridge's 
genius,  285,  433. 

Aristides,  character  of,  215 ;  how  re- 
garded. 215  ;  honesty,  216. 

Arkwright,  early  life,  56,  70 ;  his  rise, 
101 ;  in  hovel,  146,  159. 

Arietta,  pretty  feet,  268. 

Armour,  P.  D.,  on  decision,  358  ;  458. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  his  habits,  141. 

Arnold,  Edwin,  princely,  9. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  248. 

Arnold,  Thomas,  on  foundations,  167. 

Artisans'  sous,  83,  84  ;  100,  101 ;  seven 
shoemakers  in  Congress,  84  ;  265. 

Askew,  Anna,  her  courage,  27. 

Astor,  J.  J.,  his  "first  thousand,"  236. 

Auction,  lazy  man's,  411. 

Bacon,  Lord,  his  knowledge.  111 :  a  great 
worker,  157  ;  327  ;  on  books,  442 ;  on 
truth",  448  ;  riches,  462. 

Bacon,  Roger,  persecuted  for  his  studies, 
82 ;  imprisoned.  395. 

Bailey,  202  ;  on  idleness,  410. 

Ballon,  Hosea,  happiness,  448. 

Balzac,  on  one  unwavering  aim,  107 ;  his 
perseverance,  173. 

Bancroft,  George,  best  work  at  eighty- 
five,  36  ;  "  History  of  U.  S."  110,  172. 

Banquets,  three  great,  Plato,  Xenophon, 
and  Plutarch,  241. 

Barnum  began  business  barefoot,  62; 
his  grit,  62, 197  ;  keeping  money,  232. 


466 


INDEX. 


Barton,  Clara,  and  the  Red  Cross  So- 
ciety, 223,  354. 

Bates,  Rebecca,  in  war  of  1812, 12. 

Baxter,  Richard,  "  Life  and  Times  of," 
written  in  jail,  92. 

Beattie  on  happiness,  448. 

Beecher,  H.  \V.,  8;  courage,  33;  cheap 
victories,  60  ;  self-help,  150  ;  prepara- 
tion, 171 ;  on  building  for  eternity, 
226;  true  riches,  240;  charity,  403; 
idleness,  410  ;  on  Ruskin'p  works,  432  ; 
on  books,  446. 

Beethoven,  his  hardships,  78  ;  on  Ros- 
sini, 96;  on  self-help,  151;  painstak- 
ing, 157  ;  on  grit,  186. 

Bernhardt,  Sarah,  her  "Phaedre,'"  381. 

Bessemer,  Henry,  his  inventions,  167. 

Bible,  on  self-control,  288;  Vatican, 
431. 

Bierstadt,  "Last  of  Buffaloes,"  174. 

Bingham,  Capt.,  on  German  army,  178. 

Birds,  lose  power  of  flight,  129 ;  guide 
Columbus,  278. 

Bismarck,  single  aim,  114 ;  unites  Ger- 
many, 352. 

Black,  Dr.,  discovers  latent  heat,  68. 

Blackie,  Prof.,  on  character,  211,  221. 

Boardman,  sowing  and  reaping,  125. 

Boleyn,  Anne,  her  smile,  281. 

Bonar,  Horatio,  on  grit,  176. 

Bonelli's  experiment,  126. 

Bonheur,  Rosa,  and  her  lion,  .398. 

Books,  430-447;  Solomon,  Collier,  Lang- 
ford,  F^nelon,  Gibbon,  J.  F.  Clarke, 
Hillard,  Bulwer,  Greeley's  love  of 
readinir,  430  ;  Hebrew  Bible  in  Vati- 
can, 431 ;  modern  press  cheapens 
books,  431 ;  effect  of  a  single  book, 
Ossian's  poems  and  Homer  on  Na- 
poleon, Franklin,  Cotton  Mather's 
"Essay  to  do  Good,"  Tyndall  and 
Emerson,  Beecher  on  Ruskin,  432; 
Locke's  "  Essay  on  the  Understand- 
ing," Carlyle"s  books,  Lincoln's  boy- 
hood books,  432  ;  effect  of,  on  Garfield, 

433  ;  on  Carey,  433  ;  on  Wesley,  433  ;  on 
Goethe,  433;  Coleridge,  433  ;  Madame 
Roland  loved  Plutarch,  Shakespeare 
copied  Plutarch,  Curran  loved  Homer, 

434  :  Schliemann,  434  ;  Luther,  434  ; 
cheap  periodicals,  435 ;  effect  on 
Voltaire,  4-35;  Pomeroy,  436;  Bishop 
Potter,  436 ;  the  best.  Homer,  Ma- 
caulay  on  Grecian  books,  4.36 ;  De 
Quincey,  Chaucer  and  Ovid,  438  ;  Em- 
erson's three  rules,  439 ;  Bacon, 
441 ;  Cicero,  441 ;  Southey  caressing, 
441 ;  wealth  in,  441 ;  necessity  of 
having,  442;  Lytton,  443;  Mary 
Wortley  Montagu,  443  ;  how  to  read, 
444  ;  Miss  Martineau,  Edmund  Burke, 
Joseph  Cook,  445  ;  "  Souls  Medi- 
cine,'.'446;  Cockburn,  Beecher,  446; 
Washington  Irving,  447. 

Boston   Savings  Banks,   and   servants, 

235. 
Bright,  John,  his  courage,  24  ;  reply  to 

devotee  of  Mammon,  245  ;  251. 


Brooks,  James,  "  Daily  Express,"  70. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  on  true  riches,  241 ; 
246;  his  charity,  405. 

Browning,  E.  B.,  her  proficiency  in 
youth,  36;  on  decision,  358 ;  reading, 
445. 

Browning,  Robert,  writes  at  eleven,  36  ; 
obstacles,  106 ;  decision,  358. 

Brutus,  451. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  painstaking, 
156  ;  one  aim,  343. 

Buckle,  on  books,  441. 

Bull,  Ole,  on  need  of  practice,  180. 

Bulwer,  no  word  fail,  38  ;  his  deter- 
mination, 58  ;  importance  of  single 
mind,  107  ;  self-help,  165  ;  on  Praxite- 
les' statue,  177 ;  on  Roman  sentry 
at  Pompeii,  188  ;  on  economy ,  227, 235  ; 
on  trifles,  268,  282  ;  on  vocations,  327 ; 
power  of  mind  over  the  body,  382; 
charities,  403,  409  ;  knowledge,  430. 

Bunyan,  John,  how  he  wrote  "  Pilgrim's 
Progress,*'  63;  a  tinker,  83;  self-help, 
rose  above  his  calling,  101 ;  on  obsta- 
cles, 102  ;  what  changed  him,  425. 

Burke,  Edmund,  on  adversity,  100,  428  ; 
painstaking,  158,  235  ;  Goldsmith  on, 
339 ;  how  he  read,  445  ;  on  fame,  451. 

Burnett,  Howard,  charge  for  a  "  little 
thing,"  172. 

Burns,  Robert,  a  plowman,  83;  on 
obstacles,  86;  on  economy,  227;  on 
charities,  409. 

Burritt,  Elihu,  "  no  chance,"  69 ;  indus- 
try, 155. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  on  obstacles,  86. 

Busyrane,  inscription  on  gates,  37. 

Butler,  B.  P.,  coolness  at  a  mass-meet- 
ing, 21  ;  New  York  riots,  33. 

Butler,  Bishop,  on  happiness,  450. 

Buxton,  C,  on  one  aim,  107. 
[  Buxton,  Powell,  49. 

Byron,  on  courage,  10;  stung  by  criti- 

1      cism,  103  ;  on  words,  283 ;  gin,   312, 

321  ;  and  the  fortune-teller,  372  ;  448. 

Caesar,  Julius,  conquests  in  youth,  35; 
I      at  the  Rubicon,  45,  360 ;  determina- 
tion, 46  ;  "Commentaries,"  162,  440; 
442,  451. 
Calvin,  .John,  great  sufferer,  90  ;  Pope 

Paul  IV.  on,  222. 
Camillus,  decision  of,  358. 
Campbell,  Sir  Colin,  10. 
Campbell,  F.  J.,  self-help,  159. 
Canova,  conquered  obstacles,  101. 
Cardinal,  Roman,  on  fortune,  44. 
Carey,  Wm.,  "  Cooks  Voyages,"'  433. 
Carlvle,  Thomas,  on  Webster,  51  :  great 
worker,   66,   171,  324  ;  a  mason,    83 ; 
\      "  Sartor    Resartus,"     171  ;     life    no 
^      dream,  180;  on  economy,  237;  oppor- 
I      tunities,   256 ;    lack    of    self-control, 
270  ;  want  of  charity,   402 ;  on  idle- 
I      ness,  418  ;  432  ;  on  greatness,  448. 
I  Cartwright,  "Brave  Spirits,'"  370. 
Cary,  Phnebe,  on  courage,  10. 
Casas,  Las,  and  Indians,  250. 


INDEX. 


467 


Catherine,  Countess,  her  courage,  17. 

Cavanagh,  Lord,  grit,  7-4  ;  159. 

Caxtou  and  the  priutiug-ofRce,  277. 

Cervantes  and  "  Don  Quixote,'"  95  ;  437. 

Chadbourue,  President,  his  grit,  196. 

"  Chalk  your  bobbins,"  273. 

Chalmers,  determination,  58,  157,  372. 

Chamfort  on  happiness,  459. 

"  Changed  Cross,''  253. 

Channing,  Wm.  B.,  on  courage,  37;  302. 

Character,  strong,  thrives  under  adver- 
sity, 90;  Tennyson,  Lowell,  Young, 
Pope,  Watts,  Bailey,  Shakespeare,  Em- 
erson, Garfield,  202;  sympathizes  with 
health,  319  ;  the  Moor  and  Spaniard, 
262  ;  Longfellow,  Socrates,  Garrison, 
203  ;  Story  and  his  statue,  204;  Omar 
the  Caliph,  204 ;  Napoleon  on  Ney,  204 ; 
David,  Robertson,  Owen,  205  :  Lincoln 
and  boy  deserter,  207,  208 ;  Field  on 
Lincoln,  208  ;  Hamilton  on  Gladstone, 
John  Newton,  208  ;  hermit  and  min- 
strel, 209;  Damon  and  Pythias,  Pope 
Leo,  Blackie,  211  ;  Washington,  Wel- 
lington on  Peel,  212  ;  Grattan  on  Pitt, 
212,213;  Washington,  213;  Geo.  Pea- 
body,  Thackeray,  Aristides,  214,  215  ; 
Alexander,  216 ;  Montaigne,  216 ; 
Roger  Sherman,  216  ;  Sydney  Smith 
on  Homer,  217  ;  Napoleon's  death  in 
France,  Emerson  on  Napoleon,  218  ; 
Goldsmith,  219;  Dr.  Maudsley  on 
aims,  219  ;  Franklin,  220  ;  Socrates  to 
Archelaus,  220  ;  a  pacific  people,  221 ; 
Prof.  Blackie,  Gen.  Reed  to  King's 
Commissioners,  221  ;  Bourdaloue's 
preaching,  222 ;  Mary  of  Scotland  on 
Knox,  222  ;  Paul  IV.  on  Calvin,  222  ; 
Garibaldi,  Washington,  Grant,  Lin- 
coln, 222  ;  Gladstone  on  Princess  Alice, 
Florence  Nightingale,  Fabiola  estab- 
lishes first  hospital,  John  Howard, 
Clara  Barton,  223;  Mrs.  Judson, 
Snow,  Miss  Brittain,  Miss  West,  224 ; 
Walter  Scott,  integrity  and  grit, 
Agassiz,  Fax-aday,  226  ;  Beecher,  226  ; 
strength  of,  288. 

Charities,  The,  390-409,  Emerson,  Paul, 
Moore,  Lamartine,  Franklin,  Wilcox, 
Sheridan,  Longfellow,  Sydney  Smith, 
Theodore  Parker,  Lowell,  390  ;  Frede- 
rick Douglass  to  Secretary  Rusk, 
391  ;  Savery  the  Quaker,  stolen  hides, 
391  ;  Emerson,  392 ;  grand  work  of 
Elizabeth  Fry,  392  ;  Goethe,  old  lady 
on  total  depravity,  Yorkshire  miners, 
Franklin  on  Abraham,  393 ;  Bishop's 
cage  for  captives.  Dr.  Johnson  on 
Americans,  Isabella  exiles  Moham- 
medans, assists  Columbus,  394  ;  Ba- 
con, ministers  prayer  on  Emerson's 
lecture,  Constantineand  bishops,  Wei' 
lington  to  Oxford  students,  395 ;  M. 
Boudon  to  Cardinal,  395  ;  Goldsmith, 
395,  396  ;  bled  to  death  by  surgeon, 
Polish  princess  killed  by  surgeon, 
Wellington  refuses  to  kill  Napoleon, 
Grant  at  Appomattox,  General  Badeau 


on  Grant,  Sherman  and  Grant,  396; 
Southern  soldier  at  Fredericksburg, 
397  ;  Rosa  Bonheur's  lion.  Dr.  Mott 
and  a  cruel  operation,  God  in  every 
man,  398 ;  Girard's  charity,  399 ; 
Socrates,  Persian  writer,  400 ;  four- 
teen mistakes,  400  ;  Garfield's  death, 
Peter  the  Great,  Lord  Chesterfield, 
Walpole,  Shakespeare,  401, 402  ;  Gree- 
ley and  subscriber,  401 ;  Mrs.  H.  B. 
Stowe,  Cowper,  Shakespeare,  "  For- 
bear to  juiige,"  Carlyle,  Hood,  Youths' 
Companion's  story,  402  ;  Bulwer, 
"  Jlalignity,"  Beecher  on  the  absent, 
Titus,  his  charity,  403 ;  Theodosius, 
Wellington,  "never  had  a  quarrel," 
epitaph  of  Edward  (the  Good),  404; 
Bible,  Gladstone  and  sick  boy,  Phillips 
Brooks  and  baby,  W.  II.  Russell,  from 
Crimea,  405 ;  Florence  Nightingale's 
grand  work,  406  ;  Humboldt's  loan  to 
Agassiz,  408  ;  Christ's,  409. 

Charlemagne,  courage,  35. 

Charles  V.,  17  ;  doubt,  263. 

Charles  XII.,  courage  at  nineteen, 
36. 

Chaucer,  De  Quincey  on,  438. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  defends  a  slave,  32. 

Chesterfield,  Lord,  last  words,  126  ;  his 
charity,  401  ;  on  idleness,  414. 

Chickering,  Jonas,  painstaking,  179. 

Chinaman,  a  worker,  80. 

Choate,  Rufas,  concentration,  114. 

Christ,  courage,  33  ;  healing  power,  33  ; 
sole  aim,  121;  151  ;  what  he  taught, 
299  ;  charity,  409  ;  influence,  439, 

Churchill,  on  foundations,  167. 

Cicero,  on  preparation,  167  ;  parsimonv, 
235  ;  economy  is  revenue,  238,  239  ; 
greatest  riches,  239 ;  how  to  live  long, 
306,  437  ;  books,  440,  441. 

Civilization,  true  test  of,  Emerson,  202. 

Clarendon,  Lord,  441. 

Clark,  Adam,  determination,  58. 

Clarke,  James  Freeman,  on  books,  4.30. 

Clay,  Henry,  cornfield  speeches,  191, 
216  ;  423  ;  his  life  an  inspiration,  432, 
446. 

Clive  conquers  India,  36  ;  272. 

Cholera  in  London,  127. 

Cleopatra,  her  nose,  281 ;  pearls,  300, 452. 

Cobden,  Richard,  83  ;  grit,  84. 

Cockburn  on  books,  446. 

Coleridge,  Hartley,  lack  of  will-power, 
57  ;  "  two  left  hands,"'  114. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  and  "Arabian  Nights" 
57  ;  285  ;  433  ;  on  knowing  ourselves, 
306. 

Colfax,  Vice-President,  refuses  wine, 
22 ;  thrice  speaker,  69. 

Collier,  Jeremy,  as  ;  books,  430. 

CoUingwood,  dropped  acorns,  454. 

CoUyer,  Robert,  early  life,  80  ;  a  man's 
best  friends,  149. 

Colton,  courage,  37  ;  economy,  2.38. 

Columbus,  his  trials,  81 ;  one  aim,  107, 
120;  grit,  197;  quells  mutiny,  270; 
influenced  by  birds,  278  ;   and  Ferdi- 


468 


INDEX. 


nand,  284  ;  ridiculed,  352 ;  Isabella's 
jewels,  394. 

Combe,  Dr.,  ou  nervous  dis;eases,  127. 

Constantine  and  bishops,  395. 

Conde,  at  Rocroi,  35. 

Confucius,  on  will-power,  47  ;  self-help, 
145;  grit,  186. 

Cook,  Eliza,  on  man,  1. 

Cook,  Joseph,  ou  reading,  445. 

Copernicus,  son  of  a  baker,  83. 

Corday,  Charlotte,  story  of,  129. 

Cortez,  conquers  Mexico,  36. 

Coster,  invents  printing,  277. 

Coston,  Mrs.,  and  Coston  Signals,  75. 

Courage,  10-37,  Agis  on  Sparta  u  brav- 
ery, Shakespeare,  Longfellow,  Hector, 
Bayard,  Byron,  Plautus,  Oeorge  Eliot, 
Hill,  Dryden,  Bovee,  Phoebe  Cary, 
Lowell,  Emerson,  F.  W.  Robertson 
on,  10  ;  Colin  Campbell  to  High- 
landers, at  Balaklava,  ensign  at  Alma, 
Danton's  defiance,  Mirabeau  to  De 
Breze,  Regulus,  sublime,  Cranmer, 
11  ;  Rebecca  Bates  and  Sarah  Winsor 
in  -war  of  1812,  12  ;  Washington  saves 
drowning  boy,  13  ;  Wellington  and 
phrenologist,  Napoleon  at  Arcis,  14  ; 
General  Jackson,  15;  Jennie  Carey, 
French  medal,  15  ;  brave  bi)y  at  Fort 
Donelson,  16  ;  Queen  Marguerite  saves 
Damietta,  Spartan  women,  Pocahon- 
tas, Horatius  at  the  bridge,  Ei-ic  the 
Red,  18  ;  Napoleon  at  Lodi,  19  ;  Joan 
of  Arc,  Stephen  of  Colonna,  McClel- 
lan  and  the  Indians,  20  ;  Butler  at  a 
mass-meeting,  21 ;  Schuyler  Colfax 
refuses  wine,  Grant  at  Houston,  22 ; 
Catherine  Vassen,  Wellington,  on  "  a 
brave  man,"  Luther  goes  to  Worms, 
23;  Dr.  Miner's  toast,  John  Bright, 
Holmes,  24  ;  Tacitus,  25;  Sainte-Beuve, 
Peter's  courage  and  cowardice, 
Andrew  Jackson,  John  Quincy 
Adams,  Uriah  Heep,  Bruno,  27  ;  Anna 
Askew,  27 ;  Emerson,  Nelson  as  a 
boy,  David,  Grant,  28 ;  at  Water- 
loo, two  wagon-drivers.  Lieutenant 
Doughty  and  Sergeant  Rees  at  Peters- 
burg, 29  ;  Napoleon  at  Friedland,  29  ; 
Nelson  at  Copenhagen,  30  ;  at  Trafal- 
gar, 30  ;  Napoleon  to  staff-officer, 
34  ;  when  twenty-seven,  36  ;  first 
victory  in  Paris,  50 ;  Sir  William 
Napier  at  Salamanca,  George  Eliot, 
Lowell,  Shakespeare,  Thomas  More  and 
daughter.  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  at  scaf- 
fold, 31  ;  Lincoln  upholds  Grant  and 
Stanton,  Emancipation  Proclamation, 
Salmon  P.  Chase,  defends  the  slaves, 
32  ;  Christ's  sublime  courage,  Wendell 
Phillips,  H.  W.  Beecher,  Gough,  Knox, 
Garrison,  General  Butler  at  New  York 
riots,  33 ;  Leonidas  at  Thermopylae, 
Grant  at  Belmont,  Emerson  on  the 
hero,  Emin  Pasha  in  Africa,  34  ;  fable 
of  mouse  and  magician,  35. 

Cowper,  William,  on  charity,  402;  on 
idleness,  410. 


Cox,  Samuel,  on  self-help,  153. 
Cranmer,  cowardice  and  courage,  11. 
Crapo,  \V.  \V.,  his  grit,  196. 
Crockett,  Colonel,  his  push,  145. 
Cromwell,    Oliver,    couldn't    come    to 

America,    281  ;    self-discipline,     295, 

301;  402;  462. 
Crosby,  Fanny,  blind;  her  hymns,  75. 
"  Crutch  Age  ''  helps,  aids,  103. 
Culture,  Bulwer  on,  165. 
Currah,  his  grit,  58  ;    "  Orator  Mum," 

62,  103  ;  read  Homer  yearly,  434. 
Cushman,  Charlotte,  obstacles,  58  ;  265. 
Cuyler,  Dr.,  ou  staying  power,  182. 

Damon  and  Pythias,  211. 

Dante,  a  soldier,  83  ;  his  blindness,  87  ; 
twenty  years  in  exile,  93 ;  life 
changed  by  disappointments,  95  ;  his 
knowledge,  111,  437. 

Dantou,  to  the  enemies  of  France,  11. 

Dare.     See  Courage,  10-37. 

Darling,  Gi-ace,  266. 

David,  his  courage,  28;  realizes  sins, 
139  ;  the  Psalms,  205. 

Davidson,  J.  T.,  on  self-help,  150. 

Davy,  Humphry,  experiments,  68 ; 
sneer  at  gas,  71  ;  apprentice  to  apoth- 
ecary, 83  ;  on  self-help,  145;  Faraday, 
264  ;  cured  paralysis,  381. 

Deci.sion,  358-369;  Longfellow,  Munger 
Mathews,  P.  D.  Armour,  Keble, 
Holmes,  Browning,  Colton,  Camillus, 
358  ;  Antiochus  and  Roman  ambassa- 
dor, 359  ;  Caesar  at  Rubicon,  360  ;  369 ; 
Satan  in  "  Paradise  Lost,"'  value  of 
decision,  360  ;  Sheridan  at  Winchester, 
361 ;  Alexander  the  Great,  John  Fos- 
ter, Napoleon,  362 :  Napoleon  and 
Grant,  Motley  on  Charles  V.,  3fi3 ; 
Jefferson  on  Washington's  business 
decision,  364 ;  maiden  and  ear 
of  corn,  Alexander  and  Hannibal, 
Amos  Lawrence,  365  ;  fool  and  wise 
man,  irresolution,  366;  epitaphs  for 
those  who  fail,  366:  Web.ster,  366; 
Scott  on  dawdling,  how  Burton  over- 
came indecision,  mind  sympathizes 
with  body,  367;  Nelson,  "nails  his 
colors,"  369 ;  prompt  decision  in 
crisis,  369. 

De  Leon,  "  heri  di.scebamus,"  293. 

Demosthenes,  struggle  with  obstacles, 
78,  79 ;  heroism,  193 ;  great  prepara- 
tion, 181,  440. 

De  Quincey,  his  proficiency  at  eleven, 
36  ;  pearls  lost,  414. 

Dickens,  intense  application,  157;  413. 

Dickinson,  Anna,  courage,  33,  265. 

Diogenes,  search  for  a  man,  2 ;  and 
Alexander,  250  ;  contentment,  253. 

Disraeli,  on  circumstances,  44  ;  grit,  58, 
190  ;  topmost  round,  197  ;  opportuni- 
ties, 256  ;  446. 

Dom  Pedro's  daughter  frees  slaves, 
380. 

Douglass,  Frederick,  struggles  against 
circumstances,  72,  159;  charity,  391. 


INDEX. 


469 


Drew,  Samuel,  substitute  for  a  dinner,  i 

48  ;  on  Locke's  Essay,  432.  I 

Drydcn,  on  courage,  10  ;  on  habits,  125  ;  ' 

grit,  176;  fortune's  quiver,  186  ;  438. 
Dumas,  Alexandre,  on  man,  1. 
Dumas,   Alexandre,  Fils,  on  self-help, 

145. 
Duncan,  pauper,  scholar,  244. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  overwork,  823. 

Ecclesiasticus,  on  trifles,  268 ;  riches, 
239  ;  health,  306. 

Economy,  Wealth  in,  227-238 ;  Spur- 
geon,  Dr.  Johnson,  Emerson,  Goethe, 
Latin  proverb,  Franklin,  German 
proverb,  H.  W.  Shaw,  Macaulay, 
Tupper,  Shakespeare,  Bulwer,  Burns, 
John  Murray,  Quaker,  227  ;  Emei'son 
on  Boston  merchant,  Lampis,  ship 
owner,  228  ;  Marshall  Field's  business 
start,  228  ;  Ostervalde,  Paris  banker ; 
the  broken  latch,  229  ;  Guy,  London 
miser  and  "  Vulture  "  Hopkins,  Pat- 
rick, the  rainy  day,  contrasts  between 
wealth  and  poverty  in  Imperial  Rome, 
230  ;  Walpole,  woman  and  doorplate, 
Dr.  Johnson,  John  Randolph,  231  ; 
Barnum,  cathedral  window,  average 
earnings  in  U.  S.,  232;  between 
extravagance  and  meanness,  233 ; 
Emerson,  nature's  economy,  233  ;  con- 
trast between  1772  and  1822 ;  English 
working  people,  French  housekeeper, 
234;  Rev.  Wm.  Marsh,  Bulwer,  Ed- 
mund Burke  quotes  Cicero,  235  ; 
Washington,  Wellington,  John  Jacob 
Astor,  Dr.  Franklin,  Shakespeare, 
Douglas  Jerrold,  236  ;  Carlyle,  287  ; 
Greeley,  men  demoralized  by  debt, 
Micawher,  St.  Paul,  Cicero,  288. 

Edison,  electric  light,  84:  179;  266; 
phonograph,  275  ;  357  ;  443. 

Education,  Rousseau  on,  3,  166;  Addi- 
son on,  167  ;  Milton  on,  167  ;  Pope  on, 
170;  Bulwer  on,  177;  president  Trin- 
ity College  on,  177  ;  Thoreau  on,  341 ; 
a  health  tonic,  379;  Eliot,  C.  W.,  on, 
429. 

Egyptians,  books,  "soul's  medicine," 
447. 

Eldon,  Lord,  his  industrv,  48 ;  and 
Thurlow,  96. 

Eliot,  George,  on  courage,  10,  30 ; 
"  Romola,"  66;  deeds  not  strangled, 
130;  "Daniel  Deronda,'"  175 ;  oppor- 
tunities, 256. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  on  a  man,  1;  Talley- 
rand's question,  4;  10;  courage,  28, 
38;  Eric,  55  ;  tenacity,  60;  poverty, 
66 ;  Galileo,  72  ;  action  teaches,  97 ; 
gelf-help,  146 ;  one  remunerative 
book,  171 ;  cannot  die,  202  ;  Napoleon, 
218,  228  ;  riches,  239,  242,  246  ;  na- 
ture's economy,  2.33  ;  260  ;  268  :  trifles, 
268  ;  self-trust,  288  ;  omission,  299  ; 
son,  310  ;  vocations,  342  ;  sun  shines 
on,  390 ;  transcendental  nonsense, 
395  ;  Burns,  422  ;  Tyndall,  432  ;  rules 


for  reading,  439  ;  happiness,  448,  449, 

456  ;  hope,  458,  462  ;  464. 
Enemies  often  our  best  friends,  89. 
Ensign,  at  Alma,  11. 
Epictetus,  to  the  Roman  orator,  250. 
Eric,  the  Red,  refuses  to  sail,  18,  19. 
Ericsson,  in  bathroom,  262. 
Erskine,  Lord,  his  pluck,  192. 
Everett,  A.H..  pursuit  of  literature,  439. 
Everett,  Edward,  grand  discoveries,  84  ; 

career    a    disappointment,     113 ;    on 

foundations,  167  ;  266,  421. 

Fabiola,  founds  first  hospital,  223. 

Faraday,  experiments,  68  ;  blacksmith's 
son,  83;  restores  cup,  140;  .self-help, 
160  ;  science,  or  a  million,  226  :  oppor- 
tunity, 264,  266. 

Farragut,  50  years  for  opportunitj',  172. 

Fate,  what  it  is,  45. 

Fawceti,  blind,  courage,  41 ;  daughter, 
ability,  74;  grit,  196. 

F(5nelon,  on  reading,  430. 

Ferguson,  maps  out  heavens,  68  ;  162. 

Feslina  lente,  "  hasten  slowly,''  176. 

Field,  Cyrus  W.,  perseverance,  84; 
value  of  money,  149  ;  self-help,  172. 

Field,  Marshall,  rapid  rise,  228. 

Fielding,  force  of  habit,  189. 

Flechier,  on  self-help,  160. 

Fortune's  smiles,  one  visit,  44. 

Foster,  John,  will-power,  38 ;  sowing 
and  reaping,  125  ;  painstaking,  156. 

Fox,  Chas.  J.,  painstaking,  157  ;  grit, 
197 ;  debt,  238 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  studies  at  fifty,  56  ; 
ran  away,  97  ;  one  aim,  107  ;  159  ;  grit, 
196  ;  refuses  to  print  an  article,  220; 
economy,  227,  286 ;  true  riches,  244 
254;  260;  kite,  gypsum,  277;  trifles, 
268,  279  ;  use  of  child,  279 ;  and  gout, 
306  ;  on  vocations,  827  ;  on  charity, 
390  ;  Abraham  and  the  stranger,  393  ; 
sloth,  410;  on  experience,  421 ;  Ma- 
ther's "Essay  to  do  Good,'-  432; 
electricity,  441. 

Frederick  the  Great,  self-help,  162,  440: 
Carlyle,  323. 

French  Proverb  on  happiness,  448. 

Fry,  Elizabeth,  work  in  prisons,  393. 

Fulton,  Rob't,  first  steamboat,  348,  349. 

Galileo,  and  pendulum,  36;  opera-glass, 
72  ;  Venus,  84  ;  loses  control  of  his 
brain,  §21  ;  437. 

Gambetta's  career,  122. 

Garfield,  J.  A.,  first  a  man,  4;  poverty, 
69  ;  opportunity,  91,  114  :  death,  133  ; 
self-reliance,  146  ;  "  sink  or  swim," 
147  ;  hard  work,  172, 199  ;  on  Washing- 
ton, 202  ;  "  our  President,"  401  ;  debt 
to  his  mother,  422  ;  influence  of  books 
on,  438. 

Garibaldi,  fascination  over  men,  222. 

Garrison,  Wm.  Lloyd,  33,  191,  246. 

Geikie,  vocations,  333  ;  on  a  library,  438 ; 
Cicero,  441. 

German  nobleman,  413. 


470 


INDEX. 


Gibbon,  on  education,  145 ;  love  of  , 
reading,  430,  time  spent  on  '•  Decline  | 
and  Fall,'"  157,  172. 

Gibbs,  pirate,  murdered  and  slept,  135.  i 

Gilford,  on  mathematics,  63.  I 

Girard,  "  luck,"  51  ;  early  life,  52;  start  j 
in  Pliiladelptiia,  52  ;  lionest^  ,  53  ;  ac- 
curacy and  energy,  53, 462 ;  marriage, 
53  ;  252  ;  bt-nevolent  gilts,  3y9. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  in  Parliament  at 
twenty-two,  36 ;  vigorous  at  eighty- 
four,  36;  senior  wrangler,  41;  con- 
centration, 109  ;  power  of  work,  130  ; 
cheerfulness,  131 ;  165 ;  Fawcett,  174  ; 
preparation,  180  ;  Disraeli,  195 ; 
Bishop  Hamiliton  on,  2U8  :  Princess  \ 
Alice,  223  ;  245  ;  272  ;  physique,  332  ; 
visits  street  sweeper,  405. 

Gladiators,  training,  289. 

Goethe,  on  will-power,  45,  60  ;  success 
under  difficulties,  60  ;  on  single  aim, 
107,  113;  on  self-control,  153;  on 
economy,  227;  the  distant,  267  ;  worlt 
of  nature,  in  man,  422  ;  "  Vicar  of 
AVakefield,'"  433  ;  charity,  395  ;  411. 

Goldsmith,  on  determination.  58  ;  char- 
ity, 64  ;  early  life,  63,  64  ;  later  works, 
64 ;  on  obstacles,  86 ;  Curtis,  219 ; 
Burke,  339. 

Good  name,  Davidson,  150. 

Goodj'ear,  vulcanizes  rubber,  284  ;  eleven 
years"  struggles,  351 ;  357. 

Gough,  J.  B.,  courage,  33;  last  words, 
126  ;    story  of  a  drunkard,  132 ;    life  | 
of,  140 ;  tobacco,  300  ;  advice  to  youth,  I 
struggle  with  appetite,  300 ;   damper 
on  funeral,  457. 

Grandest  Thing  in  the  World.  -See  1 
Character,  202-206.  | 

Grant,  U.  S.,  and  Lincoln,  32;  courage, 
22,  28,  34  ;  no  "can't,"'  41;  no 
"  chance,"  45 ;  90 ;  decision,  58 ; 
greater  than  calling,  101  ;  failure  and 
success,  102;  114;  persistence,  110, 
172;  one  aim,  114;  relf-reliance,  146; 
grit,  192,  193;  character,  222;  mil- 
lionaire of  deeds,  245;  Appomattox, 
396. 

Greeley,  Horace,  154  ;  on  debt,  237 ;  and 
subscriber  to  "  Tribune,'"  402  ;  love  of 
reading,  430. 

Green,  J.  R.,  "Making  of  England,"' 
77. 

Grit,  clear,  186-701  ;  Shakespeare  on, 
186  ;  Bonar  on,  186  ;  Whittier  on,  186 ; 
Dryden  on,  186 ;  Longfellow  on,  186  ; 
Confucius  on,  186;  Herrick  on,  186; 
Beethoven  on,  186  ;  Pizarro  and  his 
comrades,  186 ;  Lucy  Stone,  her,  187  ; 
H.  B.  Stoweon,  188 ;  Sumner  on,  188  ; 
Roman  sentry,  188  ;  John  Walter, 
Jr.,  and  the  London  "Times,"'  189; 
Lincolu"8,  190;  Sheridan,  190;  Clay, 
191 ;  Garrison,  191  ;  Kitto,  191 ;  P. 
Henry,    191  ;  Lord  Erskine's  lack  of, 

192  ;   Grant,  192,  193 ;    Demosthenes, 

193  ;   Lincoln,  193  ;  Whipple  on  Mhs- 
B6na,  194  ;  Macaulay,  of  Alexander  the 


Great,  194 ;  Napoleon  at  Marengo, 
194;  Burke  on,  195;  Marshal  Ney, 
195:  Harvard  student,  195;  Prof. 
Tosvnsend,  195;  Orange  Judd,  195; 
W.  W.  Crapo,  196 ;  Franklin,  196  ; 
Locke,  Lee,  Lincoln,  Garfield,  196; 
Chadbourne,  196  ;  Cavanagh,  196 ; 
Henry  Fawcett,  196;  Prescott,  196; 
Parkman,  196;  Barnum,  197;  Colum- 
bus, 197;  C.  J.  Fox  on,  197  ;  Cobden, 
197;  Disraeli,  197;  Lacordaire,  198; 
Thorwaldsen,  198  ;  W.  H.  Seward.  198  ; 
Miss  Alcott,  199 ;  Mrs.  Frank  Leslie, 
199  ;  Garfield  on,  199 ;  Gen.  Jackson, 
200;  Herrick  on,  201. 

•'  Guard  weak  point,"  286,  292. 

Gutenberg  and  Faust,  84,  277. 

Guy,  miser,  bookseller,  230. 

Habit,  Sowing  and  Reaping,  125-144; 
danger  of  yielding  to,  127  ;  Galatians, 
Boardman,  Pope,  Shakespeare,  Dry- 
den, Plato,  Johnson,  Jeremy  Taylor, 
Foster,  llobert.«on,  Whittier,  Lord 
Tenterden,  last  words,  Napoleou"s, 
last  words,  125 ;  Chesterfield,  when 
dying,  Goiigh,  Paxton  H"od,  cholera 
.in  Toulon,  Bonelli's  experiment,  126; 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  "  This  time  don't 
count,"  Professor  James,  Dr.  Combe, 
127;  "just  to  see  what  it  is  like," 
128;  fable  of  the  Fates,  Father 
Schoenmaker  on  the  Indians,  stripes 
on  iiorses,  birds  lose  power  of  flight, 
headless  criminal  raises  hands,  Char- 
lotte Corday"3  blush,  Humboldt  and 
parrot,  Caspar  Ilauser,  result  of  con- 
finement, 129  ;  George  Eliot  on  habit, 
130 ;  achievement  r^-sult  of  habit, 
130  ;  Sydney  Smith  on  cheerfulness, 
Gladstone,  131  ;  habit  cumulative, 
Ruskin  on,  result  of  bad  writing, 
habit  makes  prisoners,  Gough's  story 
of  a  drunkard,  132 ;  Walpole"8  story 
of  gamblers,  betting  on  Garfield"3 
death,  story  of  a  leper,  133 ;  de- 
bauched taste  of  Romans,  pirate 
Gibbs,  134;  Gordon  the  stage-driver, 
white-  boy,  habit  of  scalping,  135; 
Indian  and  lion,  136;  Grecian  flute- 
player,  137;  Babbage  on  habit,  137; 
Kulhiereand  Talleyrand,  138;  David 
realizes  his  sins,  Washington"s  max- 
ims, Franklin's  plans  for  character 
building,  139  ;  Montaigne  on  habit, 
cuts  off  hand  for  gla^s  of  whiskey, 
Gough's  determination,  Spurgeon  on 
young  church  members,  Benedict  Ar- 
nold's habits.  Young,  "  Devil's  Acre," 
London,  Victor  Hugo,  strange  asso- 
ciation, diamond  writing  on  glass, 
Thomas  Hughes  on  "  wild  oats,"  142; 
Keble,  Theodora's  boast,  Daniel  Wise, 
sickly  student,  143;  John  Boyle 
O'Reillv,  144. 
Hale,  E.  E.,  "  King's  Daughters,"  3o4^ 
Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  his  application,  15(. 
Hall,  Robert,  great  sufferer,  90. 


INDEX. 


471 


Hamilton,  Alexander,  181. 

Handel,  in  adversity,  78. 

Hannibal,  victorious  at  thirty,  37; 
cross  Alps,  365. 

Happiness,  make  our  own  Paradise,  448- 
464;  Carlyle,  Beattie,  French  proverb, 
Bacon,  Thoreau,  Ballou,  Byron,  Pope, 
Jean  Ingelow,  Thomson,  Southwell, 
Emerson,  448,  449;  JoUiboy  and 
Bilious,  448;  Socrates,  Addison  on 
content,  449  ;  Thackeray,  Madame  de 
Stael,  Macdonald,  450  ;  riches  around, 
450;  Burke  on  fame,  Byron,  Goethe, 
Persian  king's  search,  Antony,  Brutus, 
we  make  unhappiness,  none  perfectly 
happy,  Rothschild,  451 ;  Yorkshire 
man's  definition,  452;  Apicius'  ex- 
travagance, Cleopatra,  452  ;  E-^opus, 
Caligula,  LucuUus,  Croesus,  Xerxes, 
two  men  compared,  453 ;  dissatisfied 
farmer,  CoUingwood,  454 ;  Haman 
and  Mordecai,  Kingsley  on  anxiety, 
455 ;  wretched  if  you  fancy  so,  Emer- 
son on  worry,  456;  Gough,  457; 
Russell  Sage,  happiness  in  work,  Nero, 
457 ;  P.  D.  Armour,  keep  trouble  to 
yourself,  45S ;  little  acts  make  our 
lives,  Chamfort  on  laughing,  0.  W. 
Holmes  on  mirth,  Hume,  "  crown  for  a 
laugh,"  Lycurgus,  Lincoln,  Addison, 
cheerfulness,  459 ;  magician's  secret, 
460 ;  man  creates  his  world,  old  de- 
vice, 461;  Stephen  Girard,  Montaigne, 
Emerson,  contentment,  Bacon  on 
riches,  Cromwell,  462 ;  Longfellow, 
Rubens'  motto,  like  a  violin,  Horace 
Mann,  463. 

Harrison,  Carter,  grit,  46. 

Harrison,  John,  chronometer,  262. 

Harvard  student  with  paralysis,  195. 

Harvey,  on  Jenkins,  311. 

Hauser,  Caspar,  confinement,  129, 

Havelock,  works  and  waits,  174. 

Haydn,  poor  boy,  his  "  Creation,"  153. 

Hazlitt,  obstacles,  86. 

Health,  Nature's  Little  Bill,  806-326; 
Logau,  Bible,  Virgil,  Herrick,  Cicero, 
South,  John  Newton,  Poor  Richard, 
Coleridge,  Franklin  and  Gout,  Nature 
a  Shylock  creditor,  306  ;  food  becomes 
thought  and  action,  307  ;  river  of  life, 
Spencer,  not  "vile  body,"  308;  Na- 
ture compels  to  utilize  powers,  Bible, 
the  surgeon,  309  ;  Emerson,  immuta- 
ble laws,  Seueca,  310  ;  age  of  Thomas 
Parr,  age  of  Henry  Jenkins,  ignorance 
of  health  laws,  Frances  Willard,  311  ; 
body  network  of  nerves,  312 ;   Byron 

■  and  gin,  Nature's  ledger,  the  body  a 
timepiece,  precautions,  314  ;  work  of 
the  heart,  three  greatest  physicians, 
816  ;  penalty  of  vocations,  Dr.  Ogle  on 
occupations  and  health,  317  ;  industry 
and  longevity,  penalty  of  over  exer- 
cise, 318  ;  mental  barrenness  of  some 
rich  men,  Nature's  motto,  319 ;  in- 
somnia, Newton,  320 ;  also  Byron, 
Scott,  Galileo,  Josiah    Quincy,    321  ; 


perpetual  grind,  AUfader,  321 ;  Nature 
no  sentimentalist,  nervousness  a  life- 
shortener,  Chatterton  and  Keats  die 
young,  Soutbey  on  Lucretia  David- 
eon,  Haller,  Goethe,  Linnaeus,  Kirke 
White,  overworked,  322  ;  Paley,  Pres- 
ident Dwight,  overwork,  Carlyle,  An- 
gels' Autopsies,  323  ;  bad  air,  filth,  bad 
food,  329. 

Hebrews,  oppression  and  vigor,  98. 

Heep,  Uriah,  begging  pardon,  27. 

Hegel,  the  Sphinx"  riddle,  292. 

Heine,  difficulties,  71. 

Helmholtz,  and  science,  284. 

Help,  Self,  145-166. 

Hemans,  obstacles,  106. 

Henry,  Patrick,  self-help,  145  ;  speech, 
191,  264  ;  "  lazy  boy,*'  263  ;  424. 

Henry,  Prof.,  concentration,  113. 

Herbert,  George,  self  -  control,  293  ; 
worth  of  mother,  421. 

Herder,  "  great  thought,"  376. 

Herreshoff,  blind  boat-builder,  74. 

Herrick,  grit,  186  ;  "  tumble  me  down,"' 
201. 

Herschel,  played  oboe  for  meals,  83  ; 
self-help,  161 ;  astronomer,  443. 

Hevne,  early  trials,  48. 

Higginson,  on  Colfax,  24;  329. 

Highwayman,  and  the  gibbet,  95. 

Hill,  Aaron,  courage,  10. 

Hill,  Rowland,  penny  postage,  120,  121. 

Hillard,  idleness,  416  ;  books,  430. 

Holland,  J.  G.,  self-help,  145  ;  418. 

Holland,  dikes,  271. 

Holmes,  0.  W.,  courage,  24;  obstacles, 
86  ;  concentration,  110 ;  decision,  358 ; 
mirth,  460. 

Homer,  blind,  87 ;  Odyssey,  288  ;  effects 
of  adversitv,  429;  Napoleon,  433; 
effects  of  reading,  440. 

Hood,  Paxton,  charity,  402. 

Horace,  on  obstacles,  86. 

Horatius  at  the  bridge,  18. 

liorner,  Francis,  "  Commandments  on 
forehead,""  217. 

Hosmer,  Harriet,  and  "  American  sculp- 
tors,"' 263. 

Howe,  Elias,  poverty  and  trials,  70 ; 
invents  sewing  machine,  343 ;  357 

Hughes,  Thomas,  "  wild  oats,"  142. 

Hugo,  Victor,  courage  at  seventy,  36,  37  ; 
men"s  lack,  45  ;  "Notre  Dame,"  109; 
strange  association,  141. 

HuaboTdt,  the  parrot,  129;  flight  of 
birds,  278 ;  on  sickness,  374 ;  aids 
Agassiz,  408. 

Hume,  great  worker,  157  ;  deist,  285. 

Hunter,  John,  experiences,  82;  surg- 
ery, 95. 

Huss,  John,  94. 

Idea,  Man  with  an  Idea,  343-357  ;  Bate, 
Ingelow,  J.  Stuart  Mill,  W.  M.  Pax- 
ton,  Bryant,  Howe  and  sewing  ma- 
chine, 343;  Pullman  elevates  Chi- 
cago blocks,  344;  first  sleeping  cars, 
Greek  germ   of  steam  engine,   New- 


472 


INDEX. 


coiuen  conceives,  Watt  improves,  o45 ; 
.Mackintosh  ou  Watt,  346;  George 
Steplieuson's  locomotive,  346;  loco- 
motive ridiculed,  347;  John  Fitch 
and  the  first  steamboat,  348;  Ful- 
ton's steamboat  up  the  Hudson,  848; 
Dr.  Lardner  ridicules  ocean  steamer, 
85(1 ;  Junius  Smith  and  ocean  steaui- 
ships,  350 ;  C.  Goodyear  vulcanizes 
rublier,  351 ;  Palissy's  persistency  to 
enamel  pottery,  351;  Bismarck's  de- 
termination to  unite  Germany,  Dante 
in  exile,  Columbus,  Mohammed,  352; 
Oken,  German  naturalist.  Dr.  Morton 
discovers  ether,  353  ;  Frances  Willard 
and  Woman's  International  Temper- 
ance Union,  Bishop  Vincent  and 
Chautauqua  Circle,  Dr.  Clark  and 
Christian  Endeavor  Society,  Epworth 
League,  Edw.  E.  Ha  In  and  King's 
Daughters,  Ten  Times  One,  Clara  Bar- 
ton and  Red  Cross  Society,  354  ;  Lord 
Raleigh  discovers  a  new  gas,  pioneers 
of  humanity  always  ridiculed,  355 ; 
Paul  persecuted,  Jenner  discovers  vac- 
cination, 356;  stories  of  inventors 
more  fascinating  than  "  Arabian 
Nights,"  357. 

Idleness,  Curse  of,  410-420 ;  Cowper, 
Mrs.  Sigourney,  410-420;  W.F.  Crafts, 
Franklin,  Beecher,  Von  Logau,  G.  B. 
Emerson,  Mrs.  Osgood,  Bailey,  Spur- 
geon,  410;  the  "Auction,"'  411; 
Goethe,  Connecticut  prisoner,  French 
prisoner  tattooed,  Walter  Scott  to  his 
sou,  411;  Sir  Horace  de  Vere  and 
Marquis  of  Spinola,  Epes  Sargent, 
Dickens,  412;  punished  by  death,  the 
German  nobleman,  the  countess'  let- 
ter, De  Quincey,  losing  the  pearls, 
Lord  Chesterfieid,  indolence  a  sui- 
cide, wrecks  a  young  man,  414;  sea 
captain's  remedy,  idleness  a  sly  thief, 
"  time  wasters,''  415  ;  item  from  print- 
er's hand  book,  Hillard,  416;  bicycle 
keeps  going,  417  ;  Carlyle,  shirking 
politicians,  Holland,  Lincoln,  31111, 
418 ;  Scotch  editor,  419 ;  Ruskin's 
motto,  419 :  F.  S.  Osgood,  420. 

Indians,  Schoenmaker,  129 ;  scalping, 
135;  young  lion,  136;  observation, 
269  ;  warrior  tormented,  371 ;  Ingelovv, 
Jean,  ideals,  343. 

Ingi'am,  of  "  Lond.  Illust.  News,"'  in- 
dustry, 40. 

Irving,  Washington,  on  misfortune,  60  ; 
self-help,  152:  at  seventy,  171. 

Isabella,  Queen,  assists  Columbus, 
394. 

Jackson,  Gen.  Andrew,  arrests  ruffian, 
15 ;  courage,  27  ;  ate  acorns,  200. 

Jackson,  Helen  Hunt,  on  courage,  37  ; 
riches,  239. 

Jackson,  Stonewall,  discipline,  290. 

Jacks-at-all-trades,  not  wanted,  114. 

James,  Professor,  on  sowing  and  reap- 
ing, 127  ;  virtue  and  vice,  375. 


Jamestown,  colonists,  hardships,  262. 

Jefferson,  on  Washington,  364. 

Jenkins,  Henry,  lives  169  years,  311. 

Jenner,  discovers  vaccination,  356. 

Jeremiah,  search  for  a  man,  1. 

Jerome,  Chauncey,  his  career,  77  ;  self- 
help.  154. 

Jerrold,  Douglas,  on  linguist,  113  ;  debt, 
286  ;  defies  death,  373. 

Joan  of  Arc,  her  success,  20  ;  265. 

.lnhnson,  Andrew,  President,  a  tailor,  83. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  success  a  physical 
tonic,  57  ;  early  life  and  in  college, 
64  ;  on  perseverance,  67 ;  a  mason, 
88  ;  ou  habit,  125  ;  on  Avriting  a  book, 
170;  "Vicar  of  Wakefield,''  219; 
economy,  227,  231  ;  tx-ue  riches,  244  ; 
on  trifles,  279;  hate  of  Americans, 
394. 

Jonson,  Ben,  mason  and  poet,  83. 

Joseph,  from  dungeon  to  throne,  94. 

Joseph  II.  of  Austria,  epitaph,  111. 

Judd,  Orange,  grit  and  success,  196. 

Kant,  on  obstacles,  92. 

Kean,  Edmund,  actor,  175. 

Keats,  druggist  and  poet,  83. 

Keble,   John,  on   sowing  and  reaping, 

143  ;  on  decision,  858. 
Kelvin,  Lord,  on  science,  355. 
Kenard,  Monsieur,  advertisement,  119. 
Kepler,  a  waiter  in  a  hotel,  83. 
Kingsley,  Charles,  on  education,  167. 
Kitto,  deaf,  on  will,  47  ;  grit,  191. 
Kneller,  Sir  Godfrey,  5. 
Knox,  preached,   musket  at   head,  33 ; 

his  prayers  feared,  222. 
Kossuth,     in     prison,    82;     "  tempe.st 

tossed,''  97. 
"Know  thyself,''  "help  thyself,"  163. 

Lacordaire,  grit,  198  ;  character,  239. 

Lafayette,  commander  at  twenty,  35. 

Lafitte,  Paris  banker,  285. 

La  Harpe,  57,  114. 
;  Lamartine,  charity,  390. 
;  Langdale,  Lord,  his  mother,  422. 

Lardner,  Dr.,  ocean  navigation,  40,  350. 

La  Rochefoucauld,  self-control,  303. 

Latimer  and  Ridley,  die  rejoicing,  371. 

Lavoisier,  defer  execution,  82. 

Law,  turned  out  of  doors,  97. 

Lawrence,  Amos,  character,  251,  356; 
pi'ompt  action,  365. 

Leach,  John,  insomnia,  320. 

Lee's  plans,  and  the  boy,  212;  Appo- 
mattox, 396. 

Leif,  Erics  son,  sails  to  America,  18. 

Leigli,  Pemberton,  on  drudgery,  88. 

Leo,  Pope,  confronts  Atfila,  211. 

Leonidas,  courage  and  wit,  34. 

Leslie,  Mrs.  Frank,  courage,  199. 

Lewes,  G.  II.,  foundations,  167. 
I  Leyden,  John,  thirst  for  knowledge,  50. 
I  Lincoln,  espoused  ritjht,  32;  42;  up- 
j  holds  Grant  and  Stanton,  emancipa- 
I  tion,  32  ;  an  example  of  America,  48  ; 
will   made  a  way,  48  ;  awkwardness, 


INDEX. 


473 


73;  "  pegging  away,'-  182, 190;  grit, 
193,  196  ;  boy-de?erter,  205-207  ;  char- 
ity to  Confederates,  208  ;  character, 
222  ;  logical  powers,  425. 

Linnaeus,  poverty,  66  ;  overwork,  322. 

Little  Things,  Might  of,  Trifles,  268- 
287  ;  Franklin,  Young,  Philips,  Bible, 
Emerson,  268  ;  battle  of  Platasa,  Indian 
observation,  269  ;  invention  of  gun- 
powder, Columbus,  Dana's  study  of 
sand  grain,  Agassiz's  studies  in  anat- 
omy, 270 ;  cricket  saves  a  vessel, 
leak  in  the  dike,  locomotive  and 
telegraph,  271  ;  Pasteur,  American 
Revolution,  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, Gladstone,  272;  Clive,  272; 
goose  saves  Rome,  273  ;  Scottish  army 
warned  of  Danes,  Napoleon,  Dick 
Ferguson,  "  chalk  your  bobbins,' '  273 ; 
boy's  cat  sent  to  Algiers,  274  ; 
Galileo  and  pendulum,  Edison  and 
phonograph,  Chicago  fire,  a  famous 
ruby,  275;  Cuvier,  Suspension  Bridge, 
value  of  a  comma,  Angelo,  "  tri- 
fles," 276 ;  Coster  invents  printing, 
Charles  VII.  and  printed  Bible,  277  ; 
Caxton,  first  book  in  England,  Mo- 
ses found,  Mahomet  saved  by  bird, 
Columbus  follows  birds,  278 ;  telescope 
invented,  Franklin  discovers  electri- 
city, Napoleon  and  trifles,  279  ;  Well- 
ington great  in,  280;  Cleopatra,  Anne 
BoJeyn's  smile.  Napoleon  and  Madame 
de  Stael,  Cromwell,  Bulwer,  281 ;  Dar- 
win, evolution,  Linnaeus,  botany.  Dr. 
Black,  Raleigh  and  potato,  the  Pil- 
grims, 282  ;  founding  of  Yale  College, 
283  ;  Marathon,  Goethe,  Hogarth, 
Bacon,  Goodyear  vulcanizes  rubber, 
Helmholtz,  Thames  tunnel,  284  ;  rice- 
hulling  machine,  grasshopper  war, 
George  IV.  and  apothecary,  285;  no 
trifles  in  nature,  286  ;  Tennyson,  287. 

Livingstone,  Dr.,  industry,  66;  dying  in 
Africa,  94. 

Livy,  on  self-reliance,  147. 

Locke,  hardships,  48;  "Essay  on  Un- 
derstanding,'" 432. 

Longfellow,  on  courage  of  Hector,  15  ; 
plantinsc  principles,  182  :  steady  appli- 
cation, 185  ;  on  pluck,  186  ;  on  charac- 
ter, 203 ;  vocations,  335 ;  decision, 
358 :  on  charity,  390 ;  influence  of 
great  men,  421. 

Longevity.   See  Nature's  Little  Bill,  306. 

Lowell,  on  courage,  10,  31  ;  self-help, 
145.;  on  character,  "be  noble,"  202; 
on  opportunities,  256  ;  on  vocations, 
827 ;  charity,  390. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John,  374. 

Luck,  victim  of  bad,  44  ;  Dr.  Mathews 
on,  49  ;  apparent,  of  Stephen  Girard, 
51  ;  what  it  is,  54;  Emer.*on  on,  55. 

Lucretius,  his  painstaking,  156. 

Luther,  at  Worms,  23 ;  "  Here  I  stand," 
24 ;  in  youth,  36 ;  translates  Bible  in 
prison,  92  ;  and  the  Pope,  96. 

Lvtton,  on  books,  443. 


Macaulay,  proficiency  in  youth,  36  ; 
on  Byron,  103  ;  economy,  227  ;  Athe- 
nian genius,  436. 

Macdonald,  Geo.,  on  Milton,  87;  voca- 
tions, 342  ;  castle  and  jewels,  450. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  J.,  vacillating,  57,  112  ; 
on  Byron,  103 ;  ability,  112 ;  on 
Watt,  346. 

Mahomet,  saved  by  bird,  278  ;  ridiculed, 
but  determined,  352. 

Man,  Wanted,  —  A,  1-9;  Jeremiah's 
search,  1 ;  Emerson  on,  1 ;  Eliza  Cook 
on  Natures  man,  1  ;  Alexandre 
Dumas,  1  ;  Diogenes'  searcli,  2 ; 
World's  advertisment,  2  ;  kind  wanted, 

2  ;  Rousseau  on    education  and  man, 

3  ;  Baptist  doctor  of  divinity,  4 ;  Emer- 
son, Talleyrand's  question,  4  ;  what 
Garfield  meant  to  be,  4  ;  Montaigne 
on  our  work,  4 ;  Sir  Godfrey 
Kneller,  5 ;  Sydney  Smith  on  secret 
of  life,  5;  Apelles' portrait  of  perfect 
woman,  6;  coming  man,  6;  youth's 
character  a  bank,  7  ;  what  is  man,  8  ; 
Emerson  on  scarcity  of  men,  1 ;  Jean 
Paul  Richter  on  himself,  8 ;  Jones, 
"what  constitutes  a  state,"  8  ; 
Young,    Edwin  Arnold,  9. 

Manhood,  Isaac  Taylor,  166. 

Mann,  Horace,  early  struggles,  179  ;  on 
study  of  biography,  421. 

■Mansfield,  Lord,  success,  65. 

Marathon,  battle,  results,  284. 

Marengo,  194. 

Marguerite,  Queen,  at  Damietta,  16. 

Marshall,  John,  Virginia  scenery,  424. 

Marryat,  novels,  prompt  to  sea-life, 
435. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  father's  failure,  86  ; 
how  she  read,  445. 

Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  and  Knox,  222. 

Mass(5na,  "  I  will  hold  out,"'  194. 

Mastery,  self,  288,  305. 

Mather,  Cotton,  "  Essay  to  do  Good," 
432. 

Mathews,  Dr.,  luck,  49;  vocations,  332; 
mistaken,  335  ;  decision,  358,  433. 

Maudsley,  bad  aims,  bad  passions, 
219. 

McClellan,  overawes  Indians,  20. 

Mendelssohn  to  his  critics,  95. 

Methuselah  and  the  angel,  410. 

Micawber,  maxim  of  economy,  238. 

Milbum,  chaplain  of  Congress,  75. 

Mill,  J.  S^.,  on  conviction,  343;  418. 

Miller,  Hugh,  mason,  83;  "Earl  of 
Crawford,"'  276;  old  red  sandstone, 
285,  442. 

Millet,  first  pictures,  "  Angelus,"  175. 

Miltiades,  and  Grecian  generals,  400. 

Milton,  will,  41 ;  "  Paradise  Lost,''  when 
blind,  56;  blind,  87  ;  Macdonald  on, 
87  ;  teacher,  94 ;  on  suffering,  102  ;  ou 
education,  l67 ;  408. 

xMindOver  the  Body,  Power  of,  370-389  ; 
Glanvill,  Shakespeare,  Cartwright, 
Napoleon,  popular  soprano,  370  ;  ex- 
periment on  dog  and  horse,  Latimer 


474 


INDEX, 


and  Ridley  at  stake,  Guatemozin  and 
Montezuma,  butcher  falls  on  hook, 
371;  woman  bitten  by  dog,  Byron, 
372  ;  courageous  people  avert  disease, 
Napoleon,  Jerrold  defies  death,  Sen- 
eca refuses  to  die,  Scott's  will,  why 
actors  don't  get  sick,  373  ;  tight-rope 
walker,  Humboldt,  Youth's  Compan- 
ion, 374 ;  anger,  sudden  emotions. 
Professor  James,  375  ;  vigorous  will, 
lady  did  not  grow  old,  376  ;  fear  kills, 
criminals  die  of  fear,  case  of  student, 
janitor  scared  to  death,  convict  dies 
of  fright,  Texans,  378  ;  comet  of  1520, 
intended  suicide  and  pot  of  gold,  suc- 
cess a  tonic,  education  a  tonic,  379 ; 
Dom  Pedro  recovers,  grand  senti- 
ments and  longevity,  mother's  anger 
poisons  infant,  Rarey,  angry  words  to 
a  horse,  emotions  cause  vomiting, 
anger  and  jaundice,  380  ;  bed-ridden 
patients,  381 ;  fear,  shock  from  sad 
news,  382 ;  supposed  heart  disease, 
383  ;  hair  turned  white,  pilgrim  and 
the  Plague,  3S4 ;  the  two  portraits, 
385;  ideals  and  health,  386;  teach 
children,  387  ;  coming  physician  and 
parent,  388. 

Miner,  Rev.  Dr.,  toast  at  dinner,  24. 

Mirabeau,  to  De  Breze,  11 ;  will-power, 
38,  5^^ ;  forty  years'  labor,  172  ; 
wretched  from  duns,  238. 

Mirmir's  Spring,  321. 

Mirth,  God's  medicine,  459. 

Mitchell,  Maria,  149,  263. 

Mitchell,  Gen.  0.  M.,  moments,  276. 

Moliere,  died  acting  "death,"  378. 

Money,  what  it  does  for  son,  147  ;  what 
says  yours,  241 ;  and  character,  245, 
250,  254. 

Montague,  Lady  Mary,  on  reading,  444. 

Montaigne,  work,  4  ;  habit,  140  ;  his  re- 
putation, 216. 

Montezuma,  Guatemozin,  371. 

Moor  and  Christian,  202. 

Moore,  painstaking,  171  ;  390. 

More,  Sir  T.,  brave  daughter,  31  ; 
"  Utopia,"  242. 

Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  10. 

Morton,  Dr.,  discovers  ether,  354. 

Moscheles,  "  Finis,  with  God's  help," 
151. 

Moses,  Angelo's,  69  ;  jeered  at,  355. 

Mothers,  Garfield,  West,  422,  441, 

Mott,  Lucretia,  263. 

Mozart,  hardships,  "  Requiem,"  78 ; 
poor,  but  rich,  249. 

Murdock,  \Vm.,  illuminating  gas,  71. 

Murray,  John,  his  contribution,  227. 

Napier,  Sir  C,  against  steam,  71. 

Napier,  Sir  Wm, ,  courage,  30. 

Napoleon,  at  Arcis,  14;  at  Lodi,  19  ;  at 
Friedland,  29  ;  "  impossible,"  34  ;  at 
twenty-seven,  36;  will,  58,  59;  pov- 
erty, 66  ;  unwavering  aim,  75,  78,  107, 
108  ;  spurred  by  obstacles,  88  ;  at  drill, 
115 ;  last  words,  125 ;  at  Marengo,  194  ; 


Marshal  Ney,  204;  effect  of  death, 
218  ;  on  trifles,  268  ;  fall  of  Acre,  273 ; 
master  of  trifles,  279  ;  Mme.  de  Stael, 
281 ;  self-control,  295 ;  be  master, 
305  ;  decisive  minutes,  363  ;  Welling- 
ton, 396. 

Napoleon  III.  at  Chancellor  Kent's,  39  ; 
at  Sedan,  123. 

Nature's  Little  Bill,  306. 

Nature,  schoolmaster  of  the  race,  423. 

Neal,  John,  on  obstacles,  86. 

Nelson,  Admiral,  courage,  28  ;  at  Tra- 
falgar, Copenhagen,  30 ;  at  twenty, 
36  ;  colors  nailed  to  mast,  369. 

Newcomen,  458;  steam  engine,  345. 

Newton,  Isaac,  decision  at  school,  58', 
poverty  while  experimenting,  66 ; 
composition  of  light,  68 ;  "  Chronol- 
ogy of  Ancient  Nations,"  110;  dog 
Diamond,  288  ;  441. 

Newton,  John,  208. 

Ney,  Marshall,  from  ranks,  83;  grit, 
195  ;  Napoleon  on,  204. 

Nightingale,  Florence,  hospital  work, 
223;  "angel  of  Crimea,"  406. 

Noah,  laughed  at,  355. 

Northcote,  on  money,  91. 

Nott,  President,  got  overcoat,  67. 

Obstacles,  Uses  of,  86-106;  Spurgeon, 
Goldsmith,  Young,  Holmes,  Bushnell, 
Horace,  Sirach,  Burns,  Hazlitt,  Neal, 
Harriet  Martineau,  86  ;  Milton's  suffer- 
ing, 87 ;  two  of  three  greatest  poets 
blind,  Thiers,  87 ;  Napoleon  spurred 
by  taunts,  ability  lost  for  want  of,  88  ; 
Talleyrand,  enemies  our  best  friends, 
89;  Calvin,  Robert  Hall,  90;  charac- 
ter developed  by  fire,  91  ;  Kant  on, 
92 ;  Robinson  Crusoe  and  Pilgrim's 
Progress  written  in  jail,  92  ;  Penn's 
"  No  cross,  no  crown,"  92  ;  Raleigh's 
"History  of  the  World  "' written  in 
prison,  92  ;  Luther's  Bible  at  Wart- 
burg,  92 ;  Dante  in  exile,  93  ;  two 
boys,  93  ;  Joseph,  from  pit  to  throne, 
Paul  in  Roman  cell,  Tyndale  dying  in 
prison,  Huss  at  the  stake,  Livingstone, 
Milton  teaching,  94  ;  Mendelssohn  to 
critics,  Hunter,  advance  in  surgery. 
Dr.  Peabody  on  obstacles,  Dante  and 
Florence.  Cervantes  writes  Don  Quix- 
ote, 95  ;  a  promising  cantatrice, 
Beethoven  of  Rossini,  Luther's  best 
work.  Lord  Thurlow  and  Lord  Eldon, 
Waters  on  struggling,  96;  Addison, 
Emerson,  Kossuth,  Franklin  and  Law 
forced  to  self-help,  the  eagle  taught 
to  fly,  97;  oppression  of  Jews,  9*S ; 
spring  in  Crimea,  God  knows  best, 
98  ;  adversity  discovers  the  man,  99  ; 
Burke  on  adversity,  Opie  sawed  wnod, 
100;  Canova,  laborer's  son,  Thor- 
waldsen,  a  pauper,  101 ;  Arkwright, 
Bunyan,  Wilson,  Lincoln,  Grant,  rise 
above  their  callings,  101;  Beethoven, 
Schiller,  Milton,  Bunyan  work  under 
difficulties,     101 ;    Payson,     German 


INDEX. 


475 


knights,  ^olian  harp,  Tourg^e,  102; 
Byron's  success,  Macaulay  on  Byron, 
a  "  Crutch  Age,"  103 ;  America  and 
New  England,  lu4;  Nature's  purpose, 
104 ;  Browning,  106. 

Occupations.  See  Vocations. 

Ogle,  occupations  and  longevity,  317. 

Oken,  naturalist,  frugality,  353. 

Oliphant,  Mrs.,  on  self-conti-ol,  297. 

Opie,  conquered  obstacles,  100. 

Opportunities,  Where  You  Are,  256- 
267  ;  Townsend,  Lowell,  George  Eliot, 
Alger,  Carlyle,  Disraeli,  Webster,  256; 
Bunyans  Pilgrim,  lost  bracelet,  all 
around  us,  257  ;  Brazilian  shepherds, 
257  ;  richest  Nevada  mine,  farmer  and 
coal-oil,  All  llafed  loses  his,  258 ; 
Emerson,  fortunes  from  trifles,  260  ; 
Edison,  shoe  hooks,  261 ;  barbers" 
clippers,  washing  machine,  gold  fill- 
ing, Ericsson's  propeller,  cotton-gin, 
Harrison's  chronometer.  Fitch  and 
the  steamboat,  McCormick  reaper. 
Founder  of  Clark  University,  Farqu- 
har,  umbrellas,  262  ;  Edison  in  bag- 
gage car,  Jamestown  colonists,  262 ; 
Angelo  and  the  marble,  Maria  Mit- 
chell, 263,  265  ;  Lucretia  Mott,  Harriet 
G.  Hosmer,   sculptor,  Patrick  Henry, 

263  ;  Faraday,  artist  and  log  of  wood, 

264  ;  Anna  Dickinson,  265  ;  Charlotte 
Cushman,  Jeanne   d"  Arc,  America's, 

265  ;  fortune  how  made,  Everett,  fu- 
ture discoveries,  266  ;  Goethe,  Ellen  H. 
Gates,  Harriet  Winslow,  Punshon,267. 

Orange,  William  of,  the  Silent,  raised 
Ley  den  siege,  39. 

O'Reilly,  J.  B.,  on  habit,  144. 

Osgood,  Mrs.,  idleness,  410  ;  F.  S.,  vrork, 
420. 

O^tervalde,  miser,  banker,  229. 

Owen,  John,  twenty  years  on  Commen- 
tary, 170. 

Paley,  died  of  overwork,  323. 
Paradise,  Every  Man  His  Own,  448-464. 
Paris     cabmen,    students    and    priests, 

335  ;  hydrophobia  case,  372. 
Parker,  Theodore,  and  the  turtle,  285  ; 

on  charity,  390. 
Parkman,  Francis,  grit,  159. 
Parr,  Thos.,  lived  152  years,  311. 
Pasteur,  Louis,  career,  272. 
Patten,  Dr.,  on  physical  exertions,  330. 
Paul,  St.,  determination,  122  ;  in  prison, 

251 ;  great  idea,  .356. 
Paul  IV.,  Pope,  tribute  to  Calvin,  222. 
Paxton,  W.  M.,  power  of  one  idea,  343. 
Peabody,  Rev.  Ephraim,  obstacles,  95  ; 

self  control,  303. 
Peabody,  George,  honesty,  214. 
Peel,  Robt.,  in   Parliament  at  twenty- 
one,  36;  Wellington's  tribute,  212. 
Penn,   William,    trial,  32  :   "  No  Cross, 

No  Crown,''  92. 
Pericles,  self-control,  289. 
Perseverance,  Dr.  Johnson,  67  ;  Thiers' 

first  speech,  87  ;  William  I.,  180. 


Persian  writer,  400 ;  story,  451. 

Pestalozzi,  on  self-help,  145. 

Peter,  St.,  cowardice  and  courage,  26. 

Peter  the  Great,  self-help,  162  ;  lack  of 
self-control,  294. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  courage,  33;  opportu- 
nity, 80;  on  trifles,  268;  effects,  282. 

Phipps,  Sir  Wm.,  search  for  wealth,  82. 

Physiological  bankruptcy,  306. 

Pitt,  Wm.,  singleness  of  aim,  108,  120  ; 
Grattan,  "stood  alone''  212;  high 
honor,  213  ;  high  aim,  254. 

Pizarro,  drew  the  line,  186. 

Plague  and  fear,  385. 

Plato,  on  habit,  125 ;  geometry,  139 ; 
over  door,  139  ;  painstaking,  158  ;  ban- 
quet, 241 ;  self  conquest,  2b0,  voca- 
tions, 342  ;  441. 

Plautus,  courage,  10. 

Plutarch,  Aristides,  215 :  banquet,  241 ; 
Mme.  Roland  and  Napoleon,  4d5  ; 
Emerson,  439. 

Poe,  sad  life,  290. 

Pomeroy,  boy  murderer,  436. 

Poor  Richard,  on  reason,  306. 

Pope,  Alexander,  on  man,  5  ;  habit,  125  ; 
on  character,  202  ;  reading,  430. 

Porter,  President,  on  will-power,  38. 

Potter,  Bp.,  effect  of  bad  books,  436. 

Preparation  (see  Work  and  Wait),  167- 
185  ;  Cicero,  Lewes,  Arnold,  Thoreau, 
Churchill,  Seneca,  Everett,  Kingsley, 
167  ;  Bessemer 's  work,  167  ;  elocution 
in  twelve  lessons,  169 ;  Pope,  on  na- 
ture's motto,  persistence  of  Bishop 
Hall,  170  ;  Owen,  Moore,  Carlyle, 
Beecher,  Miss  Alcott,  Emerson,  Irving, 
171  ;  persistence,  Angelo,  Da  Vinci ; 
171;  Burnett  and  the  album,  172; 
men  world  wants,  Bancroft,  Noah 
Webster,  Gibbon,  Mirabeau,  Farra- 
gut,  Von  Moltke,  Garfield,  Grant, 
Field,  172  ;  Angelo,  Titian,  Stephen- 
son, Watt,  Franklin,  Thurlow^  Weed, 
Milton,  Thackeray,  Balzac,  Webster, 
173;  Bierstadfs  picture,  Bunker  Hill 
monument,  174;  Ilavelock's  perse- 
verance, 174  ;  George  Eliot's  Derouda, 
175;  Millet,  "Angelas,''  Schiller  and 
Dante  great  workei's,  Beecher,  Thal- 
berg,  Kean's  Practice,  175  ;  Da  Vinci's 
"  Mona  Lisa,"  176;  Bingham  on  the 
Germ.an  army,  176  ;  illiterate  preach- 
er, 177;  Praxiteles' statue,  177;  col- 
lege ^graduate  and  president,  drill, 
178;  Edison,  phonograph,  Horace 
Mann,  braided  straw,  Jonas  Chicker- 
ing,  179  ;  Carlyle,  "  thy  life  no 
dream,"'  Gladstone,  incessant  work, 
Emperor  William,  perseverance,  Ole 
Bull  on  practice,  18*3 ;  Webster's  anec- 
dote, 180;  Webster's  preparation, 
Demosthenes,  181;  Hamilton,  181; 
Sizer  on,  Ruskin,  every  action  foun- 
dation-stone, 182  ;  Wellington  dis- 
couraged, Napoleon,  delayed.  Collyer, 
183  ;  chronicles  of  discoveries,  184. 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  grit,  72. 


476 


INDEX. 


Priestley,  Joseph,  house  burnt,  82. 
Procter,  Adelaide,  charity,  409. 
Ptolemy  IJ.  and  Sostratus,  421. 
Pullmau,  how  he  started,  344. 
Pythagoras,  on  courage,  37  ;  anger,  293. 

Quakers,  292,  391. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  Beacon  Street  palaces, 

235  ;  asleep  before  Story,  321. 
Quixote,  Don,  Cervantes,  95. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  courage,  31  ;  His- 
tory of  world,  92  ;  the  potato,  282. 

Raleigh,  Lord,  researches,  355. 

Randolph,  J.,  "Philosopher's  Stone," 
231. 

Raphael,  rich  without  monev,  248  ;  face 
of  Christ,  386. 

Regulus,  sublime  character,  11. 

Rich,  Isaac,  founds  Boston  Univ.,  154. 

Richard,  Poor,  horse-shoe  nail,  283. 

Riches,  —  Rich  Witliout  Money,  239- 
255  ;  Collingwood,  Pope,  Hf^len  Hunt, 
239  ;  Emerson,  239,  242,  247,  248,  250, 
254;  Cicero,  Kcclesiastes,  Young,  Soc- 
rates, 239,  250  ;  Shakespeare,  Beecher, 
239;  who  are  rich?  240;  Phillips 
Brooks,  three  great  banquets,  mes- 
sage money  brings  you,  241  ;  ship- 
wrecked sailor  and  Spanish  dollars, 
Socrates,  More's  "Utopia,'"  dying  Eng- 
lish miser,  skeleton  of  Pompeii, 
Watson,  242;  poor  man,  a  miser, 
miser  of  Padua,  243  ;  John  Duncan, 
244  ;  Franklin,  244,  254  ;  millionaiivs 
of  deeds,  ideas,  245  ;  lesson  of  life, 
Ruskin,  245 ;  men  rich  without 
money,  246  ;  Raphael,  Ilenrj'  Wilson, 
Matthew  Arnold,  243  ;  who  are  rich, 
Mozart,  249  ;  Diogenes  and  Alexan- 
der, 250,  253  ;  Epictetus,  250  ;  John 
Bright  on,  Paul,  Christ,  motto  of 
Amos  Lawrence,  Alexander  at  Para- 
dise, 251  ;  Agassiz,  252  ;  Buddhist  say- 
ings, ''  Changed  Cross,"  253  ;  Pitt, 
254;  Tennyson,  255. 

Richter,  self-made,  8. 

Rip  Van  Winkle,  Jefferson,  127. 

Rirtenhouse,  eclipses,  63,  162. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  heroism,  10;  sowing 
and  reaping,  125  ;  of  character,  288. 

Robinson  Criisop,  written  in  prison,  92. 

Rogers,  on  obstacles,  86. 

Roland,  Madame,  and  Plutarch,  434. 

Romans,  why  Tictorious,  49;  persever- 
ance, 188  ;  debauched  taste,  134. 

Ruskin,  on  habit,  132  ;  thoughtlessness, 
182  ;  what  he  sees,  279 ;  tendency  of 
the  age,  333  ;  419  ;   motto,  419  ;  432. 

Russell,  W.  H.,  in  Crimea,  405. 

Sage,  Russell,  on  work,  458. 
Sailust,  self-help,  153. 
1  Samuel  iv.  9,  on  courage,  37. 
Sargent,  Epes,  on  effort,  60,  412. 
Safan  in  "  Paradise  Lost,'"  360, 
Savery,  Quaker,  and  thief,  391. 
Savonarola,  his  integrity,  100. 


Saxe,  on  self-help,  145. 

Schiller,  great  sufferer,  78. 

Schliemann,  explorations,  434. 

Schoen maker,  Father  and  Indians,  129. 

Schools  and  Schoolmasters,  Our,  421- 
429;  Franklin,  Horace  Mann,  Everett, 
Lytton,  Longfellow,  Tennyson,  Sostra- 
tus and  Pharos,  421  ;  mother.  Presi- 
dent Giiifield,  Benjamin  West.  Goethe, 
422;  Emerson,  422,  430:  Job,  422; 
Shakespeare,  422,  428;  Nature,  great 
teacher,  city  and  country,  423  ;  Vir- 
ginia and  Patrick  Henry,  Stephen 
Allen  on  Webster,  424  ;  Universe,  a 
kindergarten,  424;  Bunyau,  Alexan- 
der, Lincoln,  425 ;  association  with 
others,  426  ;  real  power,  where  found, 
426  ;  Stearns  on  business,  427  ;  defeats 
and  failures,  Burke,  poverty,  poverty 
of  Poussin,  charity,  Richard  Foley, 
Homer,  429  ;  misfortune,  C.  W.  Eliot, 
429. 

Scott,  Walter,  on  Leyden,  51 ;  will 
pay  debts,  55,  56,  103;  decision,  225; 
and  shepherd-boy,  285;  self-deni:il, 
290 ;  overworked,  321. 

Self-IIelp,  145-166  :  Pestalozzi,  145, 146  ; 
Davy,  Patrick  Henry,  Byron,  Holland, 
Dumas,  Fils,  Shakespeare,  Phillips, 
145 ;  Gibbon,  145,  157 ;  Confucius, 
Lowell,  Saxe,  145  :  Crockett,  Garfield, 
Emerson,  Grant,  146  :  Arkwright,  146, 
159 ;  Livy,  Solario  wins  bride,  Louis 
Philippe,  coat-of-arms,  self-made  pres- 
ident, Garfield,  poverty,  your  fortune 
and  your  son,  147 ;  Cyrus  W.  Field, 
Maria  Mitchell,  American  daughters, 
Robert  CoUyer,  149 ;  Beecher's  early 
ministry.  Waters,  Davidson,  150,  151 ; 
I  "Loaferdom,"  Irving,  152;  Sailust, 
Bayard  Taylor,  Samuel  Cox,  Goethe, 
Tyndall,  153;  Isaac  Rich"s  start, 
Chauncey  Jerome,  Elihu  Burritt,  154  ; 
Sheridan,  painstaking  of  Lucretius, 
Bryant,  Forster,  156 ;  Chalmers  on 
Forster,  Dickens,  hard  worker,  Bacon, 
drudgery  of  Hume,  Lord  Eldon,  Mat- 
thew liale,  Fox,  Rousseau,  pains- 
taking of  Waller,  Beethoven,  157 ; 
Plato,  Burke,  Butler,  Virgil,  Haydn's 
youth,  Fred.  Douglass"  success,  158; 
Cavanash  and  Campbell,  Parkman, 
Franklin,  159;  Lord  Tenterden,  160; 
Faraday,  160  ;  Flechier,  Duke  of  Ar- 
gyle  and  Edmund  Stone,  160  ;  James 
Watt,  Alexander  V.,  Herschel,  Wash- 
ington, 161 ;  Burns,  Ferguson,  Gifford, 
Rittenhouse,  Julius  Caesar,  Frederick 
the  Great,  Columbus,  Peter  the  Gi'eat, 
162  ;  cramming  geese  in  Strasburg, 
164  ;  Agassiz,  Gladstone,  165  ;  over- 
culture,  Rousseau,  Isaac  Taylor,  166. 
Self-Mastery,  208,  305;  Shakespeare, 
Robertson,  Fletcher,  Earl  of  Stirling, 
Thomson,  Odyssey,  Thomas  Browne, 
Milton,  Bible,  288;  Emerson, 
288,  299;  Shelley,  Newton,  288; 
Pericles    abused,    gladiators"     train- 


INDEX. 


477 


ing,    289 ;    Poe,    289 ;     Burns'   lack,  , 
Plato,  Walter   Scott,  Stouewall  Jack-  I 
son,  290  ;   plan    tor  raukuig  qualities,  ! 
291 ;  H^gel  on  Sphinx,  Quaker's  self-  \ 
control,  292  ;    Socrates,  2y3.  295  ;  and  | 
wife,     297;    to     youth,    298;    auger 
causes  disease,    'Webster,  Pythagoras,  I 
293  ;  sti'ong  men ;    Angelo,  Peter   the 
Great,  anger,  enemy  to  life,  294 ;  Crom- 
well, 295,  301  ;  Wellington,  295,  3ul  ; 
Napoleon,  295,  305  ;  mastered  himself, 
296 ;    Mrs.     Oliphant,   297 ;      Seneca, 
Zacharias,  Von  Moltke,  298;    Grant, 
Xenophon,    Persian     teachers,    299 ; 
Cleopatra,  300 ;     alcohol,   effect     of, 
Gough's  struggle,   3u0  ;    intemperate 
feelings,  301  ;  William  the  Silent,  3:tl, 
302;     Wordsworth,  Faraday,    Wash- 
ington, 301,  302  ;  Carlyle,  Channiug, 
302  ;  Dr.  Peabody,  La  ilochefoucauld, 
our  two  natures,  3U3  ,  Burns,  Carlyle, 
305. 

Seneca,  on  haste,  167  ;  self-control,  298  ; 
on  long  life,  310  ;  will-power,  370 ; 
defied  death,  373. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  grit,  193. 

Shakespeare,  courage,  10,  31,  37;  Ro- 
man bravery,  23;  power,  44;  "Ham- 
let," sold  for  $25,  65,  241,  442  ;  habit, 
125;  self-help,  145;  grit,  186;  econ- 
omy, 227,  236  ;  true  riches,  239  ;  ideas, 
245  ;  self-control,  288  ;  mind  and  body, 
870 ;  his  charity,  401  ;  charity,  402  ; 
schoolmasters,  422 ;  effect  of  want, 
,429  ;  copied  from  Plutarch,  434. 

Sheridan,  Phil,  decision,  36  ;  at  Win- 
chester, 58. 

Sheridan,  R.  B.,  extempore  brilliants, 
153  ;  debt,  23-^ ;  on  charity,  390. 

Sherman,  Gen.,  and  Grant,  390. 

Shoemakers,  in  Congress,  84. 

Smiles,  Dr.,  foundations,  95. 

Smith,  A.,  "  Wealth  of  Nations,'"  110. 

Smith,  Junius,  ocean  steamers,  350. 

Smith,  Sydney,  digestion,  5;  Webster, 
61 ;  cheerful  habit,  131  ;  Francis 
Horner,  217  ;  vocations,  327  ;  390. 

Socrates,  character,  203  ;  to  Archelaus, 
220 ;  riches,  239 ;  richest  of  men, 
242;  died  for  honor,  250;  controlled 
temper,  293  ;  295  ;  Xanthippe,  297 ; 
charity,  400  ;  pleasure,  441,  449. 

Solomon,  books,  430. 

Sostratus  and  Pharos,  421. 

Soult,  rose  from  ranks,  83. 

Southey,  103  ;  on  Coleridge,  114. 

Sowing  and  Reaping.  See  Habit,  125- 
144. 

Spartans,  bravery,  Agis,  10  ;  women,  16. 

Spencer,  laws  of  health,  308. 

Spinola,  Marquis,  on  idleness,  412. 

Spurgeon,  obstacles,  86  ;  idleness,  410. 

Stael,  Mme.  de,  desired  beauty,  451. 

Stearns,  power  of  business,  427. 

Ste.  Beuve,  courage,  26. 

Stephen  of  Colonna,  20. 

Stephenson,  110  ;  fifteen  years  on  loco- 
motive, 173 ;  early  struggles,  346. 


Stephen  Whitney,  shipwreck,  361. 

StevvHrr,  A.  T.,  start  in  life,  261 ;  340. 

Stone,  Lucy,  her  grit,  187. 

Story,  sculptur,  and  statue,  204. 

Stowe,  Mrs.  H.  B.,  260  :  family  of  stu- 
dents, 357;  on  charity,  402, 

St.  Ju.-t,  "  Keep  cool, "296. 

Success  Under  Difliciilties,  60-85  ; 
Beecher,  Sargent,  Goethe,'Vanderbilt'8 
start,  Vauderbilt's  successes,  60,  62 ; 
Barnum  s  start,  Curran's  first  effort, 
62;  "Pilgrim's  Progress,"  how  writ- 
ten, Gifford's  first  work,  Rittenhouse 
calculates  eclipses.  Goldsmith's  early 
life,  63;  Johnson,  Mansfield,  Shake- 
speare, 65  ;  Newton,  Emerson,  Lin- 
nasus.  Napoleon,  Livingstone,  Eliot, 
and  "Romola,"  66;  Livingston,  G. 
Eliot,  66  ;  Carlyle's  painstaking,  67  ; 
Dr.  Nott's  coat,  67;  Franklin,  Dr. 
Black,  68  ;  Watt's  first  model  of  an 
engine,  68  ;  Newton  on  composition  of 
light,  Davy's  experiments,  Faraday's 
experiments.  Marquis  of  Worcester, 
Ferguson  maps  the  heavens,  68  ;  Mil- 
ton, blind,  writes  "Paradise  Lost,"' 
E.  B.  Washburne,  68;  Elihu  Burritt, 
69 ;  Garfield  teaching,  Angelo's  pov- 
erty and  success,  69;  Zola's  hard- 
ships, 69;  James  Brooks'  e.irly  life, 
Elias  Howe's  trials,  how  Arkwright 
began,  70  ;  Heine,  71 ;  Napier  opposes 
steam  for  the  navy,  71 ;  Murdock's 
efforts  to  introduce  gas,  71;  Titian 
crushes  flowers  for  colors,  71 ;  Ange- 
lo's early  efforts,  71 ;  Prescott,  Emer- 
son on  Galileo,  Shakespeare,  Daniel 
Webster,  Christ's  hui.nble  birth,  72; 
Frederick  Douglass,  72;  Lincoln,  73; 
Cavanagh,  Henry  Fawcett,  Herre- 
shoff,  blind  ship-buildei',  74  ;  Milburn, 
the  blind  chaplain  of  Congress,  75 ; 
blind  Fanny  Crosby,  Mrs.  Coston's 
naval  signals,  75;  genius  nursed  by 
poverty,  76 ;  Chauucey  Jerome,  77 ; 
Green  and  "  History  of  English  Peo- 
ple, "'77;  Schiller,  Handel,  Mozart's 
"Requiem,"  Beethoven  in  sorrow, 
78;  Demosthenes,  Eli  Whitney,  cot- 
ton-gin, 79  ;  Robert  Collyer,  80 ;  the 
Chinaman,  80 ;  Columbus'  courage, 
81 ;  Lavoisier's  execution.  Dr.  Priest- 
ley's house  burned,  Bruno  burned  in 
Rome,  Versalius  condemned,  Kossuth 
in  prison,  Bacon  persecuted,  Washing- 
ton mobbed,  Wellington's  house 
mobbed,  William  Phips"  search  for 
treasure,  82;  Hen  Jonson,  Joseph 
Hunter  a  carpenter,  Burns  a  plow- 
man, Keats  a  druggist,  Carlyle,  Hugh 
Miller,  masons,  83 ;  Faraday,  black- 
smith's son,  Kepler,  hotel  waiter,  Co- 
pernicus, Herschel,  Marshal  Ney, 
Soult  rose  from  ranks,  Cobden,  83; 
shoemakers  in  Congress,  84 ;  Cyrus 
W.  Field  and  cable,  Edison,  Everett, 
reward  of  perseverance,  84 ;  Bulwer, 
struggles  against  difiicultieg,  85. 


478 


INDEX. 


Sumner,  Charles,  backbone,  188  ;  245. 
Swift,  on  vocations,  34'2. 

Tacitus  on  courage,  25. 

Talleyrand,  his  question,  4;  enemies, 
89  ;  habit,  138. 

Taylor,  Bayard,  self-help,  153. 

Taylor,  Isaac,  self-help,  166. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  sowing,  reaping,  125. 

Tennyson,  first  efforts,  171 ;  on  charac- 
ter, 202  ;  true  riches,  255  ;  trifles,  287  ; 
companions,  421. 

Thackeray,  "  Vanity  Fair "  rejected, 
173  ;  honesty,  214  ;  451. 

Thalberg,  persistent  practice,  175. 

Theniistocles  and  Aristides,  214. 

Thiers,  failures  and  success,  87. 

Thoreau,  foundations,  167. 

Things,  Little,  Might  of,  268-287. 

Thorwaldsen,  conquered  difficulties, 
101 ;  pauper  boy,  198. 

Thurlow,  Lord,  helps  Eldon,  96. 

Titian,  early  efforts,  how  he  got  colors, 
71 ;  "Last  Supper,'"  173. 

Tourgt^e,  Albion,  obstacles,  102. 

Townsend,  Prof.,  grit  in  college,  195. 

Tupper,  will-power,  38  ;  economy,  226. 

Tyndale,  Wm.,  dies  in  prison,  94. 

Tyndall,  Prof.,  start  in  life,  153  ;  264. 

Uses  of  obstacles,  86-106. 

Vanderbilt,  Cornelius,  fortune,  60  ;  mil- 
itary contract,  61  ;  steamers,  62. 

Victor  Hugo,  "  Notre  Dame,"'  109. 

Virgil,  painstaking,  .^Eneid,  158 ;  Na- 
poleon, 433,  440. 

Vocations,  Good  and  Bad,  327-342  ; 
Franklin,  the  long  lived,  327  ;  dan- 
gei-ous  occupations  and  longevity,  328 ; 
clergymen,  miners,  329  ;  monasteries 
and  prisons,  329 ;  forced  exertions, 
330  ;  the  brain,  331  ;  Wesley,  xMathews 
on  physical  superiority,  Gladstone's 
physique,  J.  Q.  Adams,  332;  voca- 
tions to  avoid,  Geikie  on  success, 
Ruskin,  tendency  of  the  age,  333 ; 
what  to  choose,  334;  Longfellow, 
mistaken  calling,  Paris  cabmen,  335  ; 
who  fail,  336  ;  Garfield,  338  ;  greater 
than  calling,  business,  339  ;  Stewarfs 
success,  versatility,  340  ;  choice  makes 
one  a  compass,  Swift,  Emerson,  342. 

Von  Moltke,  no  chance,  45  ;  50  years  for 
opportunity,  172  ;  176  ;  silence,  298. 

Walpole,  Horace,  habit,  133  ;  economy, 
231 ;  charity,  401. 

Wanamaker,  lessons  from  career,  54. 

Washburne,  E.  B.,  his  career,  68. 

"Washington,  saves  drowning  boy,  13; 
at  19,  35 ;  hooted  in  streets,  82 ;  his 
maxims,  139  ;  Garfield  on,  202  ;  210. 

"Watt,  James,  first  engine  model,  68 ; 
his  career,  161 ;  twenty  years  on  en- 
gine, 173;  in  poverty,  346. 

"Watts,  Isaac,  on  character,  202. 


W^ebster,  Daniel,  Sydney  Smith,  Carlyle, 
51;  his  boots,  51;  country  boy,  72; 
blacksmith's  suit,  172;  debt,'  238; 
spirit  of  detail,  283;  anger  not  argu- 
ment, 293;  country  scenes,  424 ;  442. 

Webster,  Noah,  dictionary,  110. 

VV'eed,  Thurlow,  borrows  books,  48. 

Wellington,  and  phrenologist,  14  ;  of  a 
brave  soldier,  23  ;  at  Waterloo,  29  ; 
at  seventy,  36;  determiuation,  58; 
mobbed,  82;  discouraged,  183;  on 
Peel,  212;  on  economy,  236;  self- 
control,  295;  not  to  kill  Napoleon,  396. 

West,  Beuj.,  opportunities,  256  ;  422. 

Whipple,  E.  P.,  will,  38  ;  difficulties,  58  ; 
one  aim,  112  ;  Masst^na  grit,  194. 

White,  Henry  K.,  83;  overworked,  322 

Whitney,  Eli,  cotton-gin,  79. 

Whittier,  sowing  and  reaping,  125  ;  186. 

"Whittington,  iSir  Richard,  and  cat,  274. 

Will ;  Will  and  the  Way,  38-59 ;  Mira- 
beau,  Whipple,  Tupper,  Emerson, 
President  Porter,  Bulwer,  Jeremy 
Collier,  Foster,  Longfellow,  Prince  of 
Orange,  siege  of  Ley  den,  38  ;  Ley  den 
University,  39  ;  Dr.  Lardner  on  ocean 
steamers,  Mr.  Ingram's  painstaking, 
40  ;  blind  Henry  Fawcett,  his  daugh- 
ter, Grant  found  no  "  can't,"'  Milton, 
41 ;  not  always  a  way,  greatest  we  can 
do,  43;  Shakespeare,  Roman  Cardinal, 
44 ;  Disraeli,  44 ;  chance  and  fate, 
Goethe,  Victor  Hugo,  45  ;  Caesar"s  vic- 
tories. Carter  Harrison  "s  grit,  46  ;  Con- 
fucius, Kitto,  47  ;  Lincoln  shows  our 
country "s  possibilities,  his  campaign 
speeches,  read  law  barefoot,  walks  to 
legislature,  induced  to  study  law, 
Thurlow  Weed"s  love  for  books,  48  ; 
poverty  of  Heyne  and  Samuel  Drew, 
Lord  Eldon"s  industry,  48  ;  Mathews 
on  luck,  49;  Napoleon,  50;  success 
depends  on  will-power,  John  Leyden's 
thirst  for  knowledge,  50 ;  Scott  on 
Leyden,  Webster"s  boots,  Girard"s 
apparent  luck,  51 ;  early  life,  start  in 
Philadelphia,  52;  precision,  integrity, 
marriage,  53 ;  what  is  luck,  Wana- 
maker's  career,  54 ;  Emerson  on 
chance,  55 ;  sudden  resolution  late  in 
life,  56  ;  success  a  tonic.  Mackintosh, 
Coleridge,  La  Harpe,  deficient  in  will, 
Charlotte  Cushman,  58. 
Willard,  Frances  E.,  opportunity,  260  ; 

education,  health,  311. 
William    of     Orange,    the    Silent,    38; 
"  Break  the  dikes,"  39  ;  self-control, 
301 ;  tribute  ot  enemy,  302. 

Work  and  Wait,  167.     See  Preparation. 

Young,    manhood,    1  ;     obstacles,    86 ; 

sowing  and  reaping,  141 ;  virtue,  202 ; 

true  riches,  239  ;  trifles,  268  ;  341. 
Youths   Companion,  mind-power,  374  ; 

pathetic  story,  402. 

Zola,  his  poverty,  69. 


ARCHITECTS  OF  FATE 

Or,  STEPS  TO  SUCCESS  AND  POWER.  By  Orison  Swett 
Harden,  author  of  "  Pushing  to  the  Front,  or  Success  under 
Difficulties."  With  thirty-two  fine  Portraits  of  famous  persons. 
Crown  8vo,  485  pages,  $1.50. 

PERSONAL  (TESTIMONIALS)  NOTICES. 

"  Architects  of  Fate "  has  the  same  iron  in  the  blood,  the  same  vigorous  constitu- 
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PUSHING  TO  THE  FRONT 

Or,  SUCCESS  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES.  By  Orison  Swett 
Marden,  author  of  "  Architects  of  Fate,  or  Steps  to  Success  and 
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A  book  of  inspiration  and  help  to  the  youth  of  America  who  long  to  be 
somebody  and  to  do  something  in  the  world. 

No  other  book  in  the  English  language  contains  such  a  variety  and  multitude  of  fresh, 
living  truths,  so  full  of  interest  to  all  classes  of  readers.  No  book  of  ancient  times 
could  contain,  or  of  modern  days  has  embodied,  half  the  value  of  biography,  history, 
romance,  tragedy  even,  contained  in  "  Pushing  to  the  Front. '  One  might  write  a  vol- 
ume in  praise  of  the  work.  I  certainly  never  read  a  book  of  this  kind  which  approaches 
it  in  the  intrinsic  merit  of  its  contents,  or  the  possible  good  that  will  flow  from  its 
wide-spread  reading.  —  Thos.  W.  Bicknell,  Providence^  Ex-U.  S.  Cotmnissioner 
of  Education. 

I  have  ordered  several  copies  of  "  Pushing  to  the  Front  "  for  presents,  and  have  made 
public  references  to  it  in  addresses,  besides  recommending  it  by  letter.  You  have  done 
a  most  valuable  service  to  the  young  life  of  the  country. —  (Bishop)  John  H.  Vincent. 

It  is  a  book  of  sound  ideals,  inspiring  examples,  and  of  good,  wholesome  preaching 
of  the  doctrine  that  the  only  way  to  conquer  nature  is  to  obey  her.  If  anything  more 
is  needed  to  round  up  the  measure  of  the  book,  we  have  it  in  the  telling  style  which 
makes  every  sentence  ring.  —  The  Independent  (New  York). 

It  may  be  unhesitatingly  and  emphatically  declared  that  for  the  instruction  and 
incentive  of  youth  in  the  ways  of  knowledge,  industry,  and  morality,  this  book  has  no 
superior  among  uninspired  compositions.  It  is  more  fascinating  than  any  romance. 
We  wish  that  it  might  be  placed  in  every  library,  every  school,  and  every  home  in  the 
land.  —  New  York  Hotne  Journal. 

I  have  read  with  unusual  interest  your  book  "  Pushing  to  the  Front."  It  cannot  but 
be  an  inspiration  to  every  boy  or  girl  who  reads  it  and  who  is  possessed  of  an  honor- 
able and  high  ambition. —  Wm.  McKinlev. 

I  am  delighted  with  "  Pushing  to  the  Front."  How  I  wish  I  could  have  seen  it  fifty 
years  ago.  It  cannot  fail  to  do  an  immense  amount  of  good.  —  Edmund  H.  Bennett, 
Dean  of  the  Boston  University  Law  School. 

It  is  a  wonderfully  varied  and  wonderfully  sustained  trumpet-call  to  every  reader  to 
make  the  most  of  himself.  —  W.  F.  Warren,  D.  D.,  I.L..  Y).,  President  of  Boston 
Uttiversity. 

For  family  use  as  well  as  school  purposes,  no  book  has  ever  been  published  which  is 
superior  to  it.  It  is  destined  to  be  read  in  nearly  every  home  in  the  land.  —  Boston 
Herald. 

"  Pushing  to  the  Front  "  is  a  modern  wonder.  It  should  be  in  the  hands  of  every 
American  boy.     Don't  fail  to  push  it  to  the  front.  —  Bishop  Newman,  Omaha,  Nc'b. 

An  admirable  book,  a  timely  contribution  of  advice  and  inspiration  to  young  men.  — 
Chauncey  M.  Depew. 

Every  boy  in  America  would  be  better  for  reading  this  book.  —  M.  J.  Savage,  Pas- 
tor of  the  Church  of  the  Unity,  Boston. 

I  wish  every  youth  in  America  could  read  this  wonderful  book,  and  catch  its  spirit.  — 
C.  L.  Goodell,  Pastor  First  M.  E.  Church,  Bosto7i. 

"  Pushing  to  the  Front  "  is  an  ideal  book  for  youth  of  all  ages.  ■ —  Chicago  Herald. 

Sold  by  all  Booksellers.     Sejtt,  postpaid,  by 

HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN   &    CO.,  Boston. 


